Martha Quillin | The News & Observer via AP

Omar ibn Said’s face — and his story — are emerging larger and more clearly on a grand scale at the moment with the North Carolina premiere of the opera co-written by Grammy-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens.

While North Carolina has provided the Christmas trees for the White House 14 times — more than any other state — this is only the third tree from the state to serve at the nation’s Capitol since the tradition was launched there in 1964.

The Wake County Register of Deeds office, Shaw University and other professional and volunteer historians are now working to decipher more than 30 deed books that have been digitized and put online to glean information about enslaved people who lived in North Carolina. Similar work, begun as a three-year grant-funded project at UNC Greensboro and the North Carolina Division of Archives and Records, is underway in 26 North Carolina counties.