My great-grandmother, Gigi, was born and raised in a small town in North Carolina. One day she entered a competition and won a cakewalk. A cakewalk was a dance competition in the mid-19th century, generally held on black slave plantations, and the prize she won was a cake. Her family was very poor, her father was a sharecropper. Instead of sharing the pound cake with friends, which most teens who won the competition did, she went home to share it with her parents and siblings so they could have food. A few years later when she was 17-18 years old, she migrated in the Great Migration to the North all alone, she went to seek a better life. She moved to Pennsylvania where she met my great-grandfather, and got married at the age of 19. My great-grandfather opened a pretty successful pharmacy, and she finally had the comfort of being financially stable. Later that year, she had my grandfather and eventually 3 more daughters. No matter what, she made sure she had a poundcake in her house to give to neighbors, her children, or anyone who needed a little pick-me-up. She wanted to bring a little piece of the South, and her family's struggles with her as a reminder to keep giving to those who don't have as much. 

– Sadie F.

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more