We'd already traced Brittney Griner's mother's roots in Louisiana, a place she'd never associated with her own family.

Now turning to her father's ancestors, we found ourselves on more familiar terrain.

Brittney's home state of Texas.

The story begins with Brittney's great-great-grandfather, a man named Henry Adams.

Brittney knew that she has relatives who still carry the Adams surname, but she had no idea where it came from.

We tried to learn and ended up back in the slave era, pouring over the estate records of a white Texan named Thomas Adam Senior.

They list 36 enslaved human beings among them is a boy named Henry worth $125, a sight that caused Brittney to recoil.

I mean, seeing a value placed on any person is just, it's like, I can't even really imagine it.

I can, because I know the history and the sick history, but to see that it's just, I mean, it's just a boy, just a kid.

Henry was around two months old.

And I got a seven month old at home I couldn't imagine him being born into this.

And the Adam Senior.

Yep.

Deceased.

So got the name from slave owner.

Yep.

There's your great-great grandfather Henry listed as the property of a white man named Thomas Adams Senior.

given a value in an estate record just like you would do a sofa or a cow or a horse.

I was literally gonna say a cow, a pig, or a animal.

Yeah.

That's just sad.

I mean, two months, oh, I mean, ain't even started life yet.

No.

Already belonging to somebody else.

Thomas Adam Senior was one of the wealthiest men in his county.

When he died in 1859, he was worth around $40,000 or roughly $1.5 million in today's money.

A big part of that wealth was human property.

And as we combed through his estate records, we came upon Henry's parents, Sam and Pallas Adams, as well as a curious detail.

According to this record, Sam was 32 years old and Pallas was 12, and they already had a child, your great-great grandfather, Henry.

But we puzzled over this.

We don't know Pallas' age is correct.

No.

There.

Her age on census records suggest that she was about 25, not 12.

So we can't be sure.

Okay.

But it's possible that Pallas had Henry before her 13th birthday.

I mean, it's possible.

I mean, it wouldn't be uncommon back then as well like they'd cared.

I mean, people had kids way earlier, but that's crazy to think that she had already lived that much life at 12, 13.

This story was about to take an even more troubling turn.

Thomas' estate records were filed in January of 1859, meaning that his slaves were divided up amongst his heirs more than six years before the abolition of slavery.