Go Back and Get It: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance, and Intergenerational Healing by Dionne Ford
The author researches her ancestry, discovering that she is descended from a rich, powerful Louisiana cotton broker and the enslaved woman he had received as a wedding "gift" when he married into an equally rich and powerful family. Along the way she tries to get information from townspeople who know the bits and pieces of her family history, but keep it hidden.