Our Ancestors
Their Legacy, Their Tradition, Individual Worth

1st Place Thelma Dalberg Memorial Essay 2003

by HSR Evelyn Morrison Kinkade

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Perhaps, the most important legacy left to us, by our colonial ancestors, is the idea of individual self-worth.  While the colonists were men and women born to a Monarchy with a strict class system, they created in their new land, a Republic based on the ideals of individual responsibility and self-worth.

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Second sons, from a world of endowment due to birthright, where estates were inherited by the eldest son, came to the new world and established settlements, where your reputation meant more than your family name, where a man's hard work and integrity, were proof of his value.

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Bondsmen, with little but the cloths on their backs, labored seven years, for a few acres of land, and the chance at a better life.

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Their gift to us is a unique heritage:  a bequest unlike any in the world.  A Republic constructed on individual freedoms and obligations.  A government, who's cornerstone was, and still is, a Bill of Rights.

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America stands today, the oldest constitutional government in the history of the world, as a testament to the effort and dedication to a cause, of our colonial ancestors.

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Today, as Daughters of the American Colonists, their tradition of a belief in human potential, has been passed down the years to us.  As you gaze at those around you, look not at the cut of their cloths, the make of their car, or the color of their skin, see only their gifts from God, and the merit with which they use those special gifts.

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Today, not all the world regard's self-worth as we do.  As "Daughters" of the colonial men and women, who valued individual worth above all else, it is up to us to hold fast to the legacy bequeathed.

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