The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South

Book Description

Taking into account the major recent studies, this volume presents an updated analysis of the life of the black slave--his African heritage, culture, family, acculturation, behavior, religion, and personality.

Customer Reviews:

A Classic Contribution.......2005-09-08

In this revised and expanded edition, scholar John Blassingame describes not only what facts his researched uncovered, but also how he uncovered those facts. In particular, Blassingame's research emphasizes slave narratives and slave letters.

He explains that both of these types of documentation allow the researcher to enter the inner world of the enslaved person through his or her eyes, rather than simply accepting the plantation owners' views about slave life. His discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of historical resources along with his explanation of how to use internal and external evidence to assess the credibility of such sources offers a fine lesson in historiography.

In his choice of subject areas, Blassingame cuts a wide swath that overviews every core aspect of enslaved life. He begins with an intriguing examination of acculturation by comparing how enslaved Europeans in African, enslaved Africans in South America, and enslaved Africans in North America acculturated. He also explores the important but often neglected issue of the Africanization of the South--how southern Whites acculturated to African American culture.

Having laid this foundation, two moving chapters ensue. Blassingame documents slave family life with all its harrowing, horrible obstacles. Yet he also demonstrates the resilience and love of enslaved African American families. Next Blassingame addresses the many obstacles to rebellion and escape, putting to rest the notion that the lack of runaways in any way suggested acceptance of enslavement.

His final three chapters explore roles, realities, and personality types. At times his use of now-outdated sociological and psychological theory clouds the issues for modern readers. However, once sifted through and sorted out, these chapters continue to offer fresh information, if not always fresh insights.

Overall no researcher can afford to ignore Blassingame's contribution. Though many have critiqued some of his conclusions, all seem to quote him repeatedly.

Reviewer: Robert W. Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction." He has also authored "Soul Physicians" and "Spiritual Friends."

Great Book for Reseach on Slavery.......2005-07-03

This book has helped me in my independent study of slavery and family research. It gives a very good insight from the slaves perspective. Other books I have read, the insight comes from the owners prospective. A companion book to this one is "Tewlve Years a Slave" by Solomon Northup.

A realistic portrayal of plantation life.......2005-04-02

Blassingame succeeds in sheding light on the real-life culture of the black slave in the Antebellum South: his African heritage, culture, family, acculturation, behavior, religion, and personality. Rather than concentrating solely on the planter - the traditional way of approaching the subject - Blassingame attempts to clarify and distill the essence of slave life through the filter of three eyewitness accounts. Two of them, the planter and the slave, give an insider's view of the plantation while the third witness, the traveler, views the relation between slave and master from the perspective of an outsider. Blassingame then utilizes the raw material of these personal observations to construct a detailed account of the day-to-day life of a slave - providing the reader with an insightful glimpse into the Negro's African heritage, the development of an Americanized culture, the formation of families, acculturation and behavior patterns when not under white supervision, religious preferences and beliefs, and personality traits.
The author makes the assertion that there were several types of slave personalities. Sambo - the submissive half-man, half-child - is the most well-known but was mostly a stereotypical manifestation of planter class racism and insecurity. Yet this caricature is the clearest portrait the southern planter has drawn of the slave, according to Blassingame. Sambo was actually but one of many variations, and was not even the most dominant slave personality. "Such stereotypes," asserts Blassingame, "are so intimately related to the planters' projections, desires, and biases that they tell us little about slave behavior and even less about the slaves' inner life, his thoughts, actions, self-concepts, or personality."
Blassingame also asserts that, because masters were unable or unwilling to impose round-the-clock supervision, their system of control was open at certain points. These systemic "blind spots" presented opportunities for the development autonomous Negro behavior as the slave's quarters, religion, and family helped to foster self-sufficiency. Rather than identifying with and totally submitting to the master, the slaves tenaciously held on to many remnants of African culture while simultaneously gaining a sense of worth among fellow residents of the quarters. This resulting underworld society flourished in defiance of the burdens imposed by enslavement.
In writing this treatise, the author attempted to tap into the feelings and attitudes of the entire plantation community. Since the thoughts and observations of slaves were seldom recorded (the teaching of reading and writing to slaves was illegal), Blassingale tends to lean heavily on observations by whites.
Additionally, the book devotes a lengthy section attempting to determine the basis of the stereotypically feeble-minded, anxiously subservient "Sambo" image. To this end, Blassingame relies on data from Nazi concentration camps to test the hypothesis that, in a system as tightly closed as either the plantation or the concentration camp, the slave's (or prisoner's) position of absolute dependency virtually compels him to view the facility's authority-figure as somehow "good" despite the evil emanating from the master/commandant (because, so goes the theory, the master also supplies everything of value).
There are also some enlightening discussions regarding the nature of slave marriage, family, religion, rebellion, and miscegenation. For example, the slave father was virtually without authority. Unable to protect his wife and children from discipline and abuse at the hands of the master, Negro fathers' resourcefulness in compensating for their institutionally-imposed weakness evokes simultaneous waves of sympathy at their plight and admiration for pluck.
Blassingame has done an excellent job presenting and applying his research. His "holistic" approach to the subject effectively endows the reader with a keen sense of how masters and slaves interacted and provides a comprehensive picture of plantation life that effectively reveals the complexity of the institution - as contrasted with the distorted picture often emerging from those who rely solely on planter records.
He successfully incorporates the primary accounts of plantation owners, slaves, and visitors in the Antebellum South to powerfully illustrate in straightforward manner what plantation life really felt like. He also makes effective use of social science disciplines like anthropology and psychology (especially when examining techniques the plantation owners utilized to maintain control and how the slaves resisted theses efforts). Furthermore, Blassingame resists the temptation to moralize about the living conditions and oftentimes barbarous exploitation of the slaves. Instead, he allows the reader to make up his own mind about the alien word of the antebellum Southern plantation and its "peculiar institution."

A Good Treatment of an Unwieldy Topic.......2003-01-31

Blassingame wrote this book in the face of the insurmountable problem that a community can only be fully understood through tapping the thoughts and feelings of its members. Since slaves thoughts and feelings were so seldom recorded, the book tends to be based mostly on observations by whites. Nevertheless, even in observations of how slaves behaved, there is much that is not well understood. As a result, Blassingame devotes a lengthy section of the book trying to determine the degree of basis in fact of the stereotypical image of slave as demure and subservient. Ultimately Blassingame uses the example of Nazi-operated concentrated camps in World War II to reason through analogy to try to arrive at some kind of definitive conclusion.

This portion is not the bulk of the text, but there are several other points of discussion in the book that seem equally inconclusive in this same way. Nevertheless, there are also some very enlightening discussions such as the structure of marriage and the family, religion, slave rebellions, and miscegenation.

I found Blassingame's writing style very easy to read, and the material compelling. Despite my belly-aching on the inconclusiveness of many of the points in the Slave Community, I felt that this was a shortcoming imposed by the subject of the book, and not Blassingame's fault per se, and I still think it deserves four stars.

Excellent for Leisure Reading and as a Reference Guide.......2003-01-10

I read this book for my history of American slavery class and I really enjoyed it. It is one of the books I did not sell back to the college when the semester ended. Blassingame focuses on the slave culture and uses such sources as folk songs, fugitive wanted posters, slave interviews and correspondence, diaries, and memoirs (from slaves and slave holders) to bring insight on life on the plantation. The author offers an extensive, well-organized bibliography which, alone, makes this book valuable.

Book Description

Kidnapped into slavery in 1841, Northup spent 12 years in captivity. This autobiographical memoir represents an exceptionally detailed and accurate description of slave life and plantation society. "A moving, vital testament to one of slavery's 'many thousand gone' who retained his humanity in the bowels of degradation..." — Saturday Review. 7 illustrations. Index.

Customer Reviews:

An Incredibly Revealing Narrative.......2007-03-26

This book presents its readers with a first-hand account of not only the cruelties of United States slavery itself, but more importantly it touches upon the ways in which other areas of social life were negatively influenced by the institution. Solomon Northup was a black man who was born a free black man in New York in 1808. In 1841, Northup was kidnapped in Boston and take to the south to be sold as a slave. He spent the next 12 years as a slave, and this book was written after he was rescued in 1853.

Many people have associated this book with "Uncle Tom's Cabin" ever since the former was published. While the story line is not exactly the same, there are a lot of similarities. Most notably, both books have evil Northerners and benevolent Southerners, a feature that I think is too often overlooked. This adds credibility to Northup's account, insofar as he does not simply condemn all Southerners. Other themes, such as the break-up of slave families, the harsh treatment of slaves (especially female slaves who had the misfortune of handsomeness), and camaraderie between slaves also reflect those written about in "Uncle Tom's Cabin".

In the past the credibility of Northup's work had been in question, especially since a newspaper worker helped him write his account. However, in light of the vast number of particular details the Northup provides and the extent to which those details match up with other records, historians generally view this work as an authentic and truthful account of a free man sold into slavery. This is an incredible read, and the fact that it is a real account makes it even more fascinating. This book should be required reading for high school or college American history classes that cover the Civil War era.

Awesome book!.......2007-01-25

A compelling and wrenchingly honest first-hand account of slavery, many
times breaking my heart and making me think of the children of Africa
today. A new book, "The Last Witness From a Dirt Road" which takes
place in 1946, was given to me after commenting about Solomon Northup's
narrative, and it could almost be a sequel to Twelve Years a Slave,
written a 100 years later by the son of an overseer on a plantation
along the banks of Bayou Bouef in the same location in Louisiana. Old
social and economic orders seemed little changed from 1841 to 1946,
tragic, heart rendering but both books are riveting and honest, are
timely and universal.

A three hundred year nightmare........2007-01-24

Until I read Solomon Northup's riveting first hand account of his life as a slave, I had only imagined the degredation and cruelty with absolute and total submission by those who had no choices, no chances for liberty. Early in my own life in the 1930s, as a young boy and son of a sugar plantation overseer along the banks of Bayou Bouef in Louisiana, the exact same location as Solomon's narrative, I recognized the lingering stains of an enslaved society, in my friends...the field hands who lived in the Quarters. As a white kid, I had chances and choices, however choices based on the social and economic order that existed in my life and where I lived, which in reality, cast their net over my life, too. I've written my own narrative...my book "The Last Witness From a Dirt Road" which after reading Twelve Years a Slave, I see that my narrative could almost stand as a sequel to Solomon's book, but written a hundred and fifty years later. My heart is still broken for all the souls whose lives were so badly tormented and taken by a vile system devised and placed on humankind. The lesson: We must be diligent and precise in our approach to anyone whose ideology in religion and politics, teaches or wishes, to take away or diminish the freedom of man. I'm grateful for the courage and power of Solomon Northup.

Hope Born Out of Despair.......2007-01-21

Solomon Northup's slave narrative follows in the line of scores of other enlightening first-hand accounts of African American enslavement. What makes Northrup's account so unique is the fact that he was free when kidnapped and enslaved.

His harrowing description of his kidnapping in Washington, D. C., and of his fellow kidnappees, will melt the hardest heart. Yet, his interactions with other abducted African Americans also portrays the beauty and power of shared sorrow.

Another fascinating distinction found in "Twelve Years a Slave" is Northrup's almost uncanny ability to fairly depict his slave owners. In some cases, he ruthlessly exposes the one-dimensional ruthlessness of cruel masters. Yet, in one case, with his owner Pastor Ford (yes, Pastor), he calls Ford one of the most godly, caring, Christians he has ever known. He describes the biblical preaching and personal ministry that Ford provided to him. It is difficult for us today to see how the hypocrisy of a slave-owning Pastor could occur. But for Northrup, an intelligent, educated, articulate man, who could be blistering in his verbal attack on slavers, Ford was not a one-dimensional man. He was flawed, yet could still display admirable attributes.

"Twelve Years a Slave" is perhaps the most important first-hand account of enslavement ever written. The end of the story, which I will not ruin, must be read. Of course, with riveting writing like this, only the rare reader would dare stop before the end of the journey.

Reviwer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.

What a story!.......2003-09-03

This story of a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery is amazing. I know nothing of how it was written and sometimes questioned whether it was genuine or not because sometimes the writing was so eloquent, but after reading it I realized the author had some help from the editor, David Wilson. I hope Solomon Northrup is looking down from somewhere and knows what a treasure his book has become.

Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization)

Average customer rating:

Over hyped
Not Impressed
Elusive find: an autobiography of literary quality
Perceptions of a Southern Artistocrat
A Lost Voice Of A Lost Cause

Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization)
William Alexander Percy
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807100722

Book Description

Born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, within the shelter of old traditions, aristocratic in the best sense, William Alexander Percy in his lifetime (1885-1942) was brought face to face with the convulsions of a changing world. Lanterns on the Levee is his memorial to the South of his youth and young manhood. In describing life in the Mississippi Delta, Percy bridges the interval between the semifeudal South of the 1800s and the anxious South of the early 1940s. The rare qualities of this classic memoir lie not in what Will Percy did in his life—although his life was exciting and varied—but rather in the intimate, honest, and soul-probing record of how he brought himself to contemplate unflinchingly a new and unstable era. The 1973 introduction by Walker Percy—Will's nephew and adopted son—recalls the strong character and easy grace of "the most extraordinary man I have ever known." AUTHOR BIO: William Alexander Percy was the author of four books of poetry, and he practiced law in Greenville until his death, one year after the publication of his autobiography. Awarded the Croix de Guerre with gold star for his service in World War I, he also was one of the leaders in the succesful 1922 fight against the Ku Klux Klan in Greenville and headed the local Red Cross unit during the disastrous Mississippi River flooding of 1927.

Customer Reviews:

Over hyped.......2007-06-30

I've heard great things about this book, but it simply doesn't live up to the reviews. It isn't vivid, isn't absorbing, isn't all that interesting. It is a decent piece of period biography, and if you're interested in the Percy family or the region or time period, it might be worthwhile. Otherwise, give this one a pass.

Not Impressed.......2006-02-06

This is my first book about planters and plantation life. It was my expectation that the author would give more specific information about plantation finances and management. This subject is hardly touched upon. He does briefly give his opinions about slavery, but there is nothing unique about it. Basically, this is a nice, slow look back at a bygone time, but it left me wondering how the heck did these people come about, and maintain or eventually lose their wealth.

Elusive find: an autobiography of literary quality.......2005-10-09

Percy's approach to life can be summed up by a quote from the book: "It is a very nice world-that is, if you remember that while morals are all-important between the Lord and His creatures, what counts between one creature and another is good manners." Percy's book is a rare member of that most elusive category of books - the autobiography of true literary quality. Percy's touch is honest without being journalistic; poetic without appearing over-embroidered; and in his own eccentric person he provides the subject matter which is required to make such a work interesting. He steps out of the late 19th/early 20th century Mississippi delta as a character that could not have existed anywhere else. Affected, genteel, kind, elitist, romantic and with a view of race more in keeping with British Imperial "white man's burden" line of thought than anything American in origin - Percy the character remains fascinating even as the modern reader disagrees with his positions. A clearly and well told tale of an extinct breed (the gentrified southern aristocrat), a lost land (the Mississippi delta of the turn of the 20th century), and a buried epoch (the pre desegregation era). An excellent book - well worth reading not only to better understand a particular aspect of American history but for the pleasure of reading a well written book, regardless of the subject matter.

Perceptions of a Southern Artistocrat.......2004-01-23

It is true that this book attempts to explain the South, in both its physical and social aspects, from the point of view of the "landed gentry." However, a more accurate description of "Lanterns on the Levee" is that of an autobiography of William A. Percy, in which he reflects upon his life and the interesting times in which he lived. I found this book very inciteful into the mind of a southerner, and believe that Mr. Percy did a fine job of bringing his broad experiences with different cultures and social climates into this book, and using these to produce a cogent analysis of his homeland. Though not completely objective (and often bigoted by today's standards), I think that Mr. Percy did his best to "tell it as he saw it," and often admits his biases as a precursor to his analysis. The book is very poetic and philosophical in places, and includes both the subjective and emotional sentiments that one must understand in order to come to terms with "a southerner's love for the south." Additionally, I feel that Mr. Percy (especially in his last few chapters) provides the reader with thought-provoking and highly articulate observations about life, time, and human-nature. I think this book is excellent, and believe it to be a "must read" for anybody with an open-minded interest in the Missisippi Delta region, or the South in general.

A Lost Voice Of A Lost Cause.......2002-12-14

This is one of those books that is almost impossible to objectively review. The writing is elegant and evocative of an era in the South that died almost in tandem with Mr. Percy and yet I find some parts of it so arrogant and condescending that I feel myself grinding my teeth. You see, I am descended from those Mississippi hill people Percy so despised and, even after all this time, I can almost see the languid gaze and soft, drawling voice. My people came to the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta after the Flood of '27 and we build and earned what we got without the benefit of the massive slave labor that built Mr. Percy's fortune.

But this is a book review and I'll put aside old feelings to say that this is a literary gem that brings to life a way of life on which so many stereotypes of the South are built. And Will Percy is amazingly honest in his descriptions of his society. However, a society this simple and yet this complex takes more than just one book to grasp.

Thus, I also recommend "Rising Tide" by John Barry and "The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity" by James Cobb to balance your view of this time and place in history.

Book Description

The story of Thomas Sutpen, an enigmatic stranger who came to Jefferson in the early 1830s to wrest his mansion out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. He was a man, Faulkner said, "who wanted sons and the sons destroyed him."

Customer Reviews:

A Fourteen Way Of Looking At A Blackbird.......2007-04-17

This is a dark, convoluted, complex novel written in a stream of consciousness text that can easily confuse and scare the casual reader away. For the serious reader who is willing to put the time and effort into this work of art you will not be let down. First, however, you must read The Sound and the Fury (SAF). If you work your way through that novel and you "get it" and love it, then Absalom is a absolute must. But be prepared. T.S. Eliot once said of the book that it communicates before it is understood. Typical Faulkner. It takes some fortitude and a little background. Let me help with a little background. For starters, The title comes from an the Old Testament (2 Samuel 13). Absalom, one of David's sons kills his brother Amnon for raping their sister Tamar. Hence the title and a clue. The book is full of clues and in a sense can be taken by the reader as detective story full of mystery and revenge, suspense and gothic drama. This is the story of Southern tradgedy and the fall of the House of Sutpen. The central character is Thomas Sutpen who is the fountainhead of the southern, self-reliant man seeking to reach the American dream through creating a grand design of dynasty. To pass his dynasty on to his eldest legitimate son is part of the design and part its downfall. The story takes place before, during, and after the Civil War and issues such as race, miscegenation, class, economy, worker's rights, women's rights are all spun into the story that is a portrait of Southern realism. The story is told by four narrators: Quentin Compson (from SAF), Quentin's father, Quentin's roomate Shreve, and Miss Rosa Coldfield. Quentin however is the central narrator and by reading SAF one can better understand the issues facing Quentin and the reason he struggles so much with this story. Absalom is very much the story of Quentin's hatred for the bad qualities in the southern country that he loves. Much of the story as told by Quentin and Shreve is purely imaginative construction of what could have been as they speculate on the enigmatic drama that unfolds. In the back of the book is a genealogy and chronology which is extremely helpful as the story often jumps from one time period to another and from one character to another. Work on keeping it straight and reread if necessary. The book doesn't get any easier as it moves toward the conclusion. Do trust Faulkner. If you pay attention, he pulls it together and you will discover why this novel is, in my opinion, the greatest American novel of the 20th century.

Absalom, Absalom.......2007-04-10

Absalom, Abasalom is high Faulkner. It looks into the themes that he usually covers: the South and racism and other types of evil and abnormality. The method of exposition is one Faulkner used before in The Sound and the Fury, but here Faulkner's use of multiple points of view and the stream of consciousness technique attains a more highly developed, indeed baroque, level. Faulkner drops the relevant details of the plot into the stream, usually with no great fanfare, so this book must be read closely even to understand the basic information of who did what. Discerning these details involves reading a lot of sentences like the following one and, occasionally, encountering a valuable clue:

"Or perhaps it is no lack of courage either: not cowardice that will not face that sickness somewhere at the prime foundation of this factual scheme from which the prisoner soul, miasmal-distillant, wroils ever upward sunward, tugs its tenuous prisoner arteries and veins and prisoning in its turn that spark, that dream which, as the globy and complete instant of its freedom mirrors and repeats (repeats? creates, reduces to a fragile evanescent iridescent sphere) all of space and time and massy earth, relicts the seething and miasmal mass which in all years of time has taught itself no boon of death but only how to recreate, renew; and dies, is gone, vanished: nothing- but is that true wisdom which can comprehend that there is a might-have-been which is more than truth, from which the dreamer, waking, says not `Did I dream?' but rather says, indicts high heaven's very self with `Why did I wake since waking I shall never sleep again?'"

This novel is art, even great art, but is it a good read? In my opinion, no. This is a book that really must be studied rather than read, preferably with pencil and paper at hand to keep track of the relationships between the characters. (Faulkner helpfully ends the book with a chronology and a list of characters. I discovered this too late and at any rate the chronology is not complete.) For me, the effort required to get through this book somewhat outweighed the rewards. Doubtless other readers would disagree.

Unreliable Narrators, Dated Anxieties, An Empire Collapses.......2007-03-05

ABSALOM, ABSOLOM! tells two intertwined stories. The first is the story of Thomas Sutpen, born a poor white in West Virginia, who creates a great estate through sheer determination and eventually becomes an elite in the Antebellum South. Through Sutpen, Faulkner once again explores the quest for money and respectability in the rich imaginary world of Yoknapatawpha County.

The second braid of this story is slavery and its historical repercussions. In this case, Sutpen, a slave owner and plantation master, fathers two mixed race children. Ultimately, it is Sutpen's unwillingness to treat a son with "black blood" as a man and equal that destroys what he has achieved. This son is the Absalom of the title.

To tell this story and explore these themes, Faulkner creates a series of unreliable narrators who have exaggerated views of Sutpen. One is Miss Rosa, who is outraged by his sexual unscrupulousness, as well as his ability to pull an empire from the wilderness. (Her own devout Methodist father was a failed businessman.)

Then, there are the highly rhetorical Mr. Compson and Shreve. Both of these narrators approach Sutpen with amazed and fascinated speculation. A modern parallel to their voices might be celebrity interviewers who wait outside the theater at the Oscars, savoring every detail about the stars. But if you don't share their obsession? Then, their hyper focus and passionate conjecture simply seem weird, and not a little pathetic.

For me, the amazed and obsessive speculation of these voices seemed out of proportion to the faults and actions of Thomas Sutpen. I think, in part, this shows that Faulkner's theme--race, miscegenation, and its historical consequences--are no longer viewed as cataclysmic threats to American society. This is a great and positive change from the Jim Crow climate in Oxford Mississippi in the 1930s, when Faulkner wrote and where defeated Confederate soldiers and freed slaves still lived.

This is not to say that we've become a race-blind society. But the concerns that animate Mr. Compson and Shreve--Interracial sex! We'll all have black ancestors in a thousand years!--no longer brew that muddled hysteria that energizes their narrative voices, especially that of Shreve.

In my opinion, this challenging book is Faulkner-for-professors. I still prefer THE HAMLET.

It is a masterpiece, though not easy to understand........2006-12-23

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. I "read" this book the first time in college in 1972. I recently reread the book after several attempts. The length of the sentences at first overwhelmed me. The first sentence in the book was 70 plus words long. It is a masterpiece. It is both troubling and satisfying. The level of literary intensity and imagination is extraordinary. Faulkner's gives a great look into the depths of the human heart. This is not an easy book to read and understand. The book teaches much on love. It also teaches much on hate. You see much about the racial struggle of that period. You also get an interesting view into the old southern United States. This book is not for everyone. It requires a great love of reading and concentration. If you read the Nobel and Pulitzer winners, this is a must read.

Reviewed and read by Jimmie A. Kepler.

Like 10,000 cheese cakes.......2006-12-07

Every sentence in this book is like a baroquely and exhaustively decorated slice of magically fortified cheesecake-Cheesecake so excruciatingly rich as to be nigh inedible (so rich in fact that it is inevitable that a slice must be regurgitated and re-eaten(often regurgitated and re-eaten, gagging, multiple times)-accounting for the bitter and bilous taste in the occasional one or two star bestowing readers mouth and review) but if you can stomach it- to stomach often necessitating that the reader push themself away from the table-also powerfully nourishing so that by the time you finish the book it is as though you have somehow eaten the titular ten thousand cheese cakes and are therefore full beyond comprehension but satisfied beyond comparison.

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Had a hard time finishing it!
A Bold, Thrilling, and Powerful Novel
Intelligent, thoughtful, and utterly unreadable
A Prize Winner
A World I Don't Want to Know

The Known World
Edward P. Jones
Manufacturer: Amistad
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060557540
Release Date: 2003-08-14

Amazon.com

Set in Manchester County, Virginia, 20 years before the Civil War began, Edward P. Jones's debut novel, The Known World, is a masterpiece of overlapping plot lines, time shifts, and heartbreaking details of life under slavery. Caldonia Townsend is an educated black slaveowner, the widow of a well-loved young farmer named Henry, whose parents had bought their own freedom, and then freed their son, only to watch him buy himself a slave as soon as he had saved enough money. Although a fair and gentle master by the standards of the day, Henry Townsend had learned from former master about the proper distance to keep from one's property. After his death, his slaves wonder if Caldonia will free them. When she fails to do so, but instead breaches the code that keeps them separate from her, a little piece of Manchester County begins to unravel. Impossible to rush through, The Known World is a complex, beautifully written novel with a large cast of characters, rewarding the patient reader with unexpected connections, some reaching into the present day. --Regina Marler

Book Description

Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor -- William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation -- as well as of his own slaves. When he dies, his widow, Caldonia, succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart at their plantation: slaves take to escaping under the cover of night, and families who had once found love beneath the weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend estate, the known world also unravels: low-paid white patrollers stand watch as slave "speculators" sell free black people into slavery, and rumors of slave rebellions set white families against slaves who have served them for years.

An ambitious, luminously written novel that ranges seamlessly between the past and future and back again to the present, The Known World weaves together the lives of freed and enslaved blacks, whites, and Indians -- and allows all of us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery.

Customer Reviews:

Had a hard time finishing it!.......2007-09-03

I was really excited to read this book because I've read many of the Today Show Book Club Selections and enjoyed them all so far. I'd say this was my least favorite as of yet.

I am an avid reader, but yet had a hard time remembering all of the characters in this book. I felt there were way too many than what would have been necessary. This made it difficult to really dig into the book. Once I started getting better acquainted with the characters, it was still slow going, I just didn't feel much anticiaption or excitement for what would happen next. I also did not feel much of a connection for any of the characters. Furthermore, especially at the beginning I had a hard time keeping straight the storyline, obviously not remembering all of the who's who didn't help!

I finished the book, but it took me quite a long time because I just didn't have a lot of interest in it. But, I kept reading hoping it would get better, towards the middle I did start getting into the story more and the last half was better than the first for sure. I am giving this book such a low review based on all of my reasons above. I do love a good historical novel, but this one just didn't do it for me. I would not recommend it to a friend.

A Bold, Thrilling, and Powerful Novel.......2007-08-30

This story would have been exciting enough based only on the fact that Edward P. Jones so boldly took the antebellum novel to a place it has never gone before; namely, to black slave-owner Henry Townsend's plantation in Manchester, Virginia. There, the "Known World" is wholly different from what one might expect. But this seemingly obvious and absurd anomaly of U.S. history, wherein black masters owned black slaves, doesn't stop with that rarely discussed fact. It is further illuminated by Jones' flights into the fantastic with observations of sentient lightning, children with the personalities of bitter grandparents, and, comically enough, freak chickens.

Mixed within this potent literary brew are some of the most original and dynamic characters, male and female, ever to step into the pages of American fiction. In fact, one of more remarkable features of Jones' amazing novel is his portrayal of how specific individuals sometimes managed to exploit the institution of slavery in order to indulge their own private needs, quirks, or agendas.

It's true that the alternating biblical density and epic expansiveness of details and events with which Jones builds his narrative can at times prove challenging. However, this same aesthetic ultimately delivers a triumphant satisfaction. Jones' Pulitzer--and any other awards received for this novel--was well earned and deserved.

by Author-Poet Aberjhani
author of The Harlem Renaissance Way Down South
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)

Intelligent, thoughtful, and utterly unreadable.......2007-08-27

I bought this book because of a glowing review in the New York Times Review of Books. I have gotten to page 57 and I cannot go on. This material has been covered before. And was this author assigned an editor? Even thus far, some characters are confusing, and some material repeats.
The review I read suggested that the book is new and original because it covers the topic of a black man owning slaves. But I am only at page 57 and this black man has died, and there is far too much angst going on about it.
If you have to read this because it's on the college book list, schedule extra time for this one.

A Prize Winner.......2007-08-24

With The Known World, Edward P. Jones created a masterpiece, the kind of novel that brings much needed credibility to the Pulitzer Prize judges who named it Best Novel in 2004. The novel is set in fictional Manchester County, Virginia, some twenty years before the start of the Civil War and it focuses on an aspect of slavery that I knew very little about beforehand, the fact that there were freed blacks in the South who were themselves slave owners.

I found myself completely immersed in the world that Jones recreated, a world that was seldom pretty, one that was filled instead with flawed characters who reflected their upbringing and the times in which they lived. This is a multi-generational novel in which the author takes great care to explain how each of the characters came to be the person he ultimately was but it is not always told in strict chronological order. There are both flashbacks and jumps far into the future that add depth and historical context to the story and make this a memorable book.

The story centers on the Henry Townsend plantation, a plantation of some 33 slaves owned by a former slave whose father bought him out of slavery when Henry was a boy. Augustus, Henry's father, was a skilled furniture maker who was allowed by his owner to pocket a portion of what he earned building furniture for area plantation owners. Augustus accumulated enough money to buy his own freedom and finally saved enough to later buy the same for his wife and son. It was to the great disappointment of Augustus, a disappointment that almost separated father from son for good, that Henry eventually became a slave owner.

It is upon Henry's sudden death that the Townsend plantation is thrown into a chaos from which it never recovers. Caldonia, Henry's widow, did not have the discipline required to profitably run a plantation of 33 slaves while maintaining the distance from them required to keep their respect. She became so close to her overseer that he became bold enough to demand his own freedom, something that she denied him, causing him to lose control of himself and the other slaves for whom he had day-to-day responsibility. Some of those slaves began to run for their freedom, alone or in groups of two or three, resulting in tragedy for those left behind, both black and white.

The Known World is not a book that should be read quickly. Its story is told through the eyes of numerous characters from several families, black and white, and it can be difficult to follow until the reader feels familiar with all the names and relationships. It is one of those novels that suddenly "click" for the reader to the point that he finds himself totally taken by the world that the author has created. I regretted having turned the last page, finding myself wondering what became of the next generation and hoping that Jones will one day tell me.

A World I Don't Want to Know.......2007-08-19

This book has an interesting premise in that the slave owners are the same race as the slaves. A lot of the incidents in this book are very eye-opening because I had never thought about what happens to slaves when their master dies. It is so amazing to me that people feel that they have a right to "own" their fellow human beings, not even treating them as real people, but as possessions. The other part of the book that I found fascinating was the idea that slaves should not be educated. I kept thinking that the de-humanization of the slaves had a lot of similarities with Nazi Germany. Slavery in this country is not a history to be proud of.

Average customer rating:

Every Home Needs a Copy
Division and reunion, and the child and adult, in "Gone With the Wind"
This isn't a romance novel - far from it, but a MUST READ
One of the Greatest Books of all time!
Best Book I Ever Read

Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 068483068X

Amazon.com

Sometimes only remembered for the epic motion picture and "Frankly ... I don't give a damn," Gone with the Wind was initially a compelling and entertaining novel. It was the sweeping story of tangled passions and the rare courage of a group of people in Atlanta during the time of Civil War that brought those cinematic scenes to life. The reason the movie became so popular was the strength of its characters--Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, and Ashley Wilkes--all created here by the deft hand of Margaret Mitchell, in this, her first novel.

Customer Reviews:

Every Home Needs a Copy.......2007-09-14

Some of the reviews are long but I will keep this short. Gone With the Wind is the only book I have read twice. I absolutely adored this book and all the characters in it. It is my favourite book of all time and I read all sorts. I bought my mother and sister-in-law a copy because I thought they should read it too (just once). Read it and see for yourself.

Division and reunion, and the child and adult, in "Gone With the Wind".......2007-09-06

"Gone With the Wind," as a novel, has been mistakenly dismissed by literary critics as pulp fiction for the masses. This view is premature and biased, in my opinion. If one digs deeply into the fabric of this very complex novel, one is likely to find that this novel works on two very different levels: the external level, in which themes such as survival and romantic love figure prominently; and the internal level, in which themes such as division v. reunion and the child v. the adult figure prominently.

An external analysis of the novel yields much that has been obvious to the reading and movie-going public for years. "Gone With the Wind" is, most obviously, a very powerful novel about a young woman's survival of two unique crises: the American Civil War and Reconstruction of the South that followed. The personal qualities of those who survive and prosper in this novel -- characters such as Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, Mammy, Will Benteen, old Mrs. Fontaine, even Mrs. Merriwether -- are contrasted sharply with those who do not survive and prosper: Ashley Wilkes, Ellen O'Hara, Gerald O'Hara, and Scarlett's first two husbands, Charles Hamilton and Frank Kennedy.

Melanie Hamilton presents an interesting study in the story of survival. Margaret Mitchell uses her to represent the dignified stateliness of the Old South matron. Rather than becoming a victim of the Old South's disintegration, she survives in a way that equals or even surpasses Scarlett's survival. Melanie, whom Mitchell originally intended as the novel's heroine, is the woman who saves Tara from burning to the ground; the woman who drags her father's Mexican War sword to the landing at Tara, helping Scarlett defend it from the Yankee invader; and the woman who stands against polite society in order to defend Scarlett, her beloved sister-in-law, from the town's gossip. Yes, she dies at the end of the novel, and Mitchell uses this to represent the passing of the Old South. However, even here, Melanie dies in her own bed, in her own home, with her own family about her, and she dies on her own terms: after conceiving a child she knew placed her own life at risk.

It is also about three interconnected love stories: the traditional, dignified courtship and marriage of Melanie Hamilton and Ashley Wilkes; the thwarted, unconsummated relationship between Ashley Wilkes and Scarlett O'Hara; and the temptuous, passionate courtship and marriage of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. The central theme of these love stories is summarized early in the novel by Scarlett's father, Gerald O'Hara: "Only when like marries like can there be any happiness."

These themes, while universal and very powerful, are only external to the novel, and I don't believe the novel's power or universality are derived from the themes of survival and love. I believe its power is much more subtle. Indeed, for years, it has been a mystery to literary critics why this novel was received equally well by 10-year olds as well as 95-year olds. Therein lies its secret: it is a novel with which both the 10-year old child and the 95-year old adult can identify strongly. It is a novel about children and it is a novel about adults.

Every one of the major characters has qualities of both children and adults in them. These are handled subtly, not obviously, and the language of the novel, which I believe Margaret Mitchell crafted deliberately along these lines, takes the reader in this direction. For example, listen to what Scarlett says about men: "All the men in Scarlett's life, the Tarleton twins, the Calvert boys, Charles, and Frank, she could dismiss with the phrase, 'What a child!' Not Rhett. He was an adult in everything he did. Only Rhett and Ashley ..."

Scarlett is portrayed as both child and adult. "I'm always your little girl," she says to her mother in the middle of the Civil War, when in fact she is a widow with a 2-year old son. The woman whose heroism saves Tara from oblivion is evaluated by Rhett at the end: "My pet, you're such a child." By the end of the novel, when Scarlett is only 28 years old, she has been married three times, widowed twice, given birth to three children, and buried one of them. Yet, in her dreams, she is still "a lost child." When asked if she thought Scarlett ever got Rhett back, Margaret Mitchell said: "I don't think so, but I do think she finally grew up."

Melanie is the adult who masquerades in child's clothing -- and has a child's figure. Mitchell takes pain to describe Melanie's physical appearance "as that of a 10-year old boy, with narrow hips and height barely coming up to Ashley's shoulders." Yet it is Melanie who has the wisdom to see Scarlett's finer qualities, her strength of character, her commitment to her promises, and her ability to survive -- wisdom that is ironically viewed by Scarlett (and others) as foolishness. She is portrayed as foolish to be so loyal and loving to Scarlett; yet it turns out, in the end, that Scarlett's attachment to Ashley was imaginary, and it turns out in the end that Scarlett loves Melanie deeply. She is portrayed as foolish for defending Rhett Butler so staunchly, yet her wisdom about his good qualities is thoroughly vindicated by the novel's end. Of all the principles, it is Melanie who is the most wise -- and the most adult. Yet her external appearance is very childlike.

Rhett is usually depicted as an adult, the black sheep of a prominent Charleston family who makes his own fortune as a blockade runner from just a $1,000 investment. He admits, at novel's end, that he wanted to care for Scarlett, as an adult would care for a child; yet he is relentlessly mothered by Melanie, especially toward the end: she straightens him up so that he can be presentable to Scarlett after her miscarriage; and only she can convince him to consent to Bonnie's funeral. Further, he enables Melanie's mothering throughout the novel. She is the only person that he truly respects because, I suspect, she is a reminder to him of his own mother, a character who is rather prominent in the novel, though largely absent. Interestingly, it is only Melanie who comes into contact with her, as she greets mourners for Bonnie in the parlor of Scarlett and Rhett's mansion.

Ashley Wilkes is the real child of the four principles, but it takes Scarlett the entire duration of the novel, more than 12 years, to realize this. Ashley is the weakest character, the one who has failed to give up the "life that [he] loved," the one who depicts the charm and grace of the Old South to Scarlett -- the only time that she succumbs to the mistake of looking back. Mitchell is very deft with this scene. It is portrayed as a scene that exposes Ashley and Scarlett's illicit love for each other. However, what's really being exposed here is their common dependence on the past, Ashley's being overt and Scarlett's much more deeply repressed. By implication, it's also exposing the true nature of their attraction for each other, because they shared a common upbringing, growing up on neighboring plantations.

This scene is expertly crafted. While Ashley and Scarlett are reminiscing about the charm and grace of their common past -- an event which culminates in their hugging in a truly platonic manner, one in which they begin to understand each other -- they are exposed to the gossip and criticism of Atlanta society. What's being exposed here is not their unconsummated romance; it's their common reliance on living in the past. It's fitting that they should be exposed when they're reminiscing about their common past, because that is the real force of their attraction, the real reason for their love (an ultimately childish love, by the way). Mitchell uses this scene to expose them not to Atlanta society, but to the reader. They're not in love with each other; they're in love with a life that is (forgive the cliche) gone with the wind. At the end of the novel, when Scarlett realizes she truly loves Rhett, she sums up her relationship with Ashley: "I've lost my lover and I've gained another child."

Virtually every relationship in this novel can be evaluated as child v. adult; think, for example, of Mammy, the real mother figure of the novel. Look at Ellen and Gerald O'Hara; he was 43 when they married and she was 15; yet she mothers him, right up until her death. Consider one of their final episodes, recounted to Scarlett in Atlanta by John Wilkes, in which Gerald wanted to fight in the war. Ellen puts him to the test insofar as riding his horse is concerned, a test that "little Gerald, who barely came up to her shoulders" failed miserably. After Ellen dies, Gerald's life collapses and he is a broken man, right until his death.

Finally, there is the theme of division and reunion that appears on numerous occasions throughout the novel. Consider how the novel starts: Scarlett is seated on the front steps of Tara between the Tarleton twins -- a divisive force for two brothers who are otherwise as "alike as two bolls of cotton." The novel begins with internal and external symbols of division. The Civil War starts. We are introduced to Scarlett and Melanie, the two heroines who are complete opposites and, at least for Scarlett, adamantly opposed to one another. We are introduced to Ashley and Rhett, the two heroes who are also complete opposites, at least externally, and rather opposed to one another; Ashley dislikes Rhett's blackguardism, and Rhett has contempt for Ashley's weaknesses.

Mitchell deliberately tries to convince the reader, by cleverly contrasting their external characteristics, that these characters are hopelessly divided. Scarlett "hates" Melanie because she is a foolish simpleton and Ashley's wife; Rhett is a symbol of the New South, and Ashley is a symbol of the Old South; Rhett is a survivor, Ashley is a victim. Scarlett is a divisive figure in Melanie and Ashley's marriage. Scarlett is a divisive figure in the Hamilton-Wilkes families: toward the end, she is the indirect cause of a family feud that splits the family into two separate camps. Scarlett, herself, is a divided character - the result of an alliance between an Irish immigrant and an established aristocrat from the Savannah coast. "In her face were too sharply blended the sharp features of her father, an Irish immigrant, and the more delicate features of her mother, a French aristocrat from Savannah." Mitchell has even put division on Scarlett's face -- one reason that Vivien Leigh, who as an actress utilized divided eyebrows (one up, one down) for Scarlett, was such a perfect choice for the part. "She is my Scarlett," admitted Margaret Mitchell.

Division is the premise of the novel. Reunion is its conclusion. Everything that was divided is ultimately united by novel's end. Melanie and Scarlett reach an understanding with each other; Scarlett comes to realize how much she loves and relies on Melanie, and comes to appreciate her strength, the "steel courage" that has sustained her through many crises. Indeed, the evolution of their relationship is one of the most touching and endearing aspects of the novel. Whereas we begin the novel with Ashley depicted as the war hero whose life is lived for "dignity and honor" and with Rhett depicted as the blackguard who is motivated only by crass selfishness, we end the novel with Ashley reduced to a helpless, purposeless victim and Rhett enhanced as a loving husband and father. Along the way, the stark contrasts that Mitchell draws early between Rhett and Ashley yield to sympathetic comparisons. "Did it ever occur to you, Scarlett, that Rhett and I are fundamentally alike?" Ashley inquires toward the end. Yet their similarities are evident -- though repressed -- from the beginning. In a surprising confrontation with Mrs. Merriwether, Melanie defends Rhett's criticisms of the war because they mirror things her husband has written to her. Ashley and Rhett begin the novel as divided and opposed to one another; they end united and unified as characters. Melanie and Scarlett, likewise, begin the novel as opposed opposites and end the novel united and unified. Division begets reunion.

This theme, division and reunion, is especially powerful when you consider the historical context of the novel. In my view, it is no accident, but rather a careful decision on Margaret Mitchell's part, to time the action of the novel from April 1861, the start of the Civil War, the ultimate symbol of division, to September 1873, the end of Reconstruction, the ultimate symbol of reunion. It is a breathtaking historical backdrop for a novel whose dramatic power is derived from characters experiencing division and reunion in their lives.

It is curious that Mitchell's novel has born the brunt of belittling and contemptuous literary criticism over the years. When it debuted, it sold millions and won the Pulitzer Prize; no film, before or since, has ever been so widely anticipated as the 1939 film was. Its massive popularity, I suspect, and Mitchell's melodramatic writing style have contributed to this contempt. However, when one considers the thematic breadth of the novel, its impeccable structure, and the awesome scope of its narrative force, "Gone With the Wind" is a singular and astonishing achievement. I believe its universality, its appeal from the 10-year old to the 95-year old, is best explained by the themes of child v. adult and division v. reunion. I also believe that it is these themes that explain why it captivates us after 71 years and will continue to captive generations to come.

This isn't a romance novel - far from it, but a MUST READ.......2007-08-02

This is the least romantic novel I have every read, and I mean that as a compliment. The heroine is a vain, selfish, unmaternal, incredibly strong but shallow woman. The hero is at first almost a cipher - tall, dark, handsome, mysterious, rich - regular romance fodder.

They both grow older and harder as the book moves on. The ending is a surprise, but only because Mitchell faced up to reality.

I first read this as a 12-year-old. I feigned a sore throat for three days so I could stay off school and continue. Back then, Scarlett was my hero, and I knew Rhett would take her back. Now, I'm older than Rhett was when the novel closed - and I know he didn't take her back.

It's one of the most compelling novels I have ever read. The period detail puts you right into an age/place I never knew existed, but it is so lifelike I suspend belief. Emma is boring by comparison; War & Peace, confusing - and those are two of my favorite books.

I just read on wiki that someone is writing a book based on Rhett's side of things. Tread carefully because you tread on my dreams.

One of the Greatest Books of all time!.......2007-06-25

Gone with the Wind is one of the best books ever written, maybe the best.
I can not even express how much I love this book.
Many people disregard Gone With the Wind as a just a lenthy romance, but this is NOT what it is. Gone with the wind is SO much more than a romance. It is, for one, a book about the Civil War from the Southern people's perspective. This book gives the reader a brand new perspective on the Civil War and it is refreshingly NOT like all the other mundane Civil War books. It is full of history, but there is never a boring moment: Margret Mitchell is a brilliant writer whose beautiful and exciting descriptions, livily dialoge and none-stop story keep the book engrossing and never boring. I couldn't put it down!
Again, Gone with the WInd is not just a romance, as I said, it is a refreshing Civil War book; but it is not only that. Gone with the wind has many suspensful, dangerous, and sometimes violent moments, such as The Burning of Atlanta or the event when Scarlett shoots a Yankee invader.
The characters of GWTW are immortal. Each character is so beloved to so many readers, and there is a good reason why. Every character has his own fascinating personality. Every type of person, from selfish to greedy to tragic to stupid to controlling to timid to utterly kind is expressed in the book's countless engrossing characters.
The story line is also wonderful. It is very complex but never confusing; it has such a good main plot and so many intriuging sub-plots.
For the reasons I have attempted to state above and for so many more, Gone with the Wind is a beloved American Classic that has endured and will endure for many years to come.
Whether are a man or woman, girl or boy, old or young, READ THIS BOOK!
You will not regret it.
And it just may be, that after you have entered the world of Gone with the Wind, you will find in it a new favorite that is worth reading over and over again.

Best Book I Ever Read.......2007-06-23

Margaret Mitchell was a genius. This book is so detailed and interesting it is hard to describe. Do not judge it by the movie. It is a very accurate portrayal of life before, during and after the War Between the States, in the South. Scarlett was not always an admirable character, but she was not boring.

Average customer rating:

A Christy winner? Really??????
Disappointing
Didnt know it was a bible thumping book
Absolutely Delicious
I love this book!

A Bride Most Begrudging
Deeanne Gist
Manufacturer: Bethany House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764200720
Release Date: 2005-07-01

Book Description

When Lady Constance Morrow finds herself held against her will aboard a ship bound for the American colonies-a ship filled with "tobacco brides" and felons-she is quite sure that as soon as she arrives she will find a reasonable man who will believe her father is an earl and send her back on the next ship to England. Instead she meets Drew O'Connor, a determined Colonial farmer who is nearly as headstrong as she is. Drew wins Constance as his bride but soon realizes he has taken on much more than he bargained for

Customer Reviews:

A Christy winner? Really??????.......2007-10-17

I could have given this book 3 stars- except it was soooooo overrated that my hightened expectations were doubly slashed.

I love to love my protagonists. I find neither Constance nor Drew to be likeable characters. While Constance makes a turn and becomes more likeable at the end she is still irritating and I wasn't really cheering for her. And Drew! Really, am I supposed to be rooting for him? HE'S the HERO?

The premise of the book was excellent. I loved the idea of this book. I just think the author failed in its execution. If you want likeable characters to cheer for, hope for, this is not the book for you. Neither are very likeable from the start and they don't get much better toward the end.

Disappointing.......2007-09-17

Just my two cents. Bad history. Bad drama. Dialog and actions that don't make sense for 17th Century characters. Christianity stuck into the story like raisins in a pudding - very superficial.

If you want to read a great novel of this time period , 17th C Virginia, and the story of the tobacco brides, try Mary Johnston's To Have and To Hold. It's a little dated, but much better literature.

Didnt know it was a bible thumping book.......2007-07-13

WAY big thumbs down to this book.
I had no idea when I bought it that it was a book with a Christian message.
I was a little offended and feel that there needs to be better tagging of books. As a person of the Jewish faith, I didn't need to read about how all things are possible if you give your life over to Jesus.
What the eff ever.

Absolutely Delicious.......2007-07-09

A friend suggested this book to me by describing it at "absolutely delicious" and it was! How could I resist a referral like that? I absolutely loved this story and couldn't put it down!

I love this book!.......2007-06-06

I received this book because, as an author, the sender was hoping that I might be an influencer. I was under some serious time constraints at the time of receipt, so I put the book in my closet with a "to be read when I have time" stamp upon it. Of course the stamp doesn't actually exist, but I can see it with my mind's eye.

I'm not sure how long the book has been in the closet but recently a "cleansing of the closet" caused it to be rediscovered and then placed by my bedside table. It had gone from the "to be read when I have time" to the "to be read at bedtime" stack.

I like reading fiction at bedtime. It relaxes me, helps me to fall asleep, leaving the reality of life far, far behind. Sometimes, though, books of fiction are such that I can't put them down. Exhausted, I do put them down, but in the morning--when I should not be reading fiction, but the nonfiction research I do for my own work--I pick them up again. Even as I go about those day-to-day tasks which must be done, I find myself a little miffed that I cannot read the book. A little misty-eyed, too. I WANT TO READ THE BOOK!

A Bride Most Begrudging is that kind of book for me. I have loved every minute of it, in spite of the fact that I haven't read historical fiction religiously for some time. I am amazed at the amount of knowledge the writer has of the era as well as her ability to twine together the drama of kidnapping and being sold into "wifedom" with--oh, let's say--the beheading of a rooster...or the gathering of eggs...or the cooking of turtles.

Personally, the main character is as inept at doing these things as I would be. And so I laugh out loud. A lot!

This will not be my last book by Deeanne Gist. And I won't wait for them to come in the mail, either!

Eva Marie Everson, Author & Reader of Great Fiction...All Day Long....
Oasis: A Spa for Body and Soul
The Potluck ClubTakes the Cake: A Novel (Potluck Club)

It's OK to Leave the Plantation : The New Underground Railroad

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Sensational!!!!!!!
FREEDOM TEACHING
The Untainted Truth!
A book for anyone and not only the black people.
Martin Luther King would be Proud

It's OK to Leave the Plantation : The New Underground Railroad
Clarence Mason Weaver
Manufacturer: Reeder Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 0965521818

Book Description

This book discusses the "plantation mentality" that is causing Americans to become co-dependent. It is historical however does look at the authors personal journey from a Berekely militant to a conservative businessman.

Customer Reviews:

Sensational!!!!!!!.......2006-09-05

He hit's the real points of why Black America dosen't try to succeed and the growing problems of our attitudes that hold us back.

FREEDOM TEACHING.......2005-09-20

This book is a must for those who truly want to know about what freedom is. Without listing them, Weaver explains the value of political, economic, and spiritual freedom. If there were more people like him, we would not have a society that so readily accepts mediocracy.
His book confirms what many people are and have been sensing for a while..... the watering down of our history and a dombing down of our children (and adults, black, white, or whatever) so we will not know how to battle the obstacles of the future.

The Untainted Truth!.......2005-08-01

What a great book! It clarifies major problems in American society in a manner that does not taint facts with emotions. Weaver is a true man making his own way in America despite being surrounded with "Can't do" attitudes. A great read for anyone! This book will change your perspective on life!

A book for anyone and not only the black people........2003-10-17

These it's not only for black americans, but to latin people too, we have too much to think from here.

We in history instead of being a "slave" working in the plantations, were servants in a ranch, and being said that, the rest it's the same in our countries, the ones that feel "I deserve this, so you the goverment must give it to me", and the ones that "earn it".

I'm from Mexico and I found this book a must read for everyone that wants to leave the plantation, you don't need the goverment to take care of you, you just have to try it and take care of you by yourself.

I wish this book were translated to spanish, so a lot of hispanic people could read it, I think we have a lot in common with this book.

Martin Luther King would be Proud.......2002-01-03

Many observers across the political spectrum--from Harry Stein to Jeff Jacoby--have remarked on the courage of black conservatives. Such valor is on bold display throughout C. Mason Weaver's short treatise.

Mr. Weaver's story is not all that uncommon: young liberal comes face-to-face with reality as he matures and suddenly realizes he is a conservative after all. However, such tergiversations are not permitted within the Black community--or at least not among self-appointed Black spokesmen nor the entrenched bureaucracies that survive on keeping racial hostility simmering. It is precisely this perpetual anger that Mr. Weaver defines as one of the most damaging detriments affecting the liberal Black "leaders." He unabashedly proclaims that "we should celebrate the victory instead of nagging about the need for the war."

There seems to be no taboo fact that he is unwilling to state. A proud and thoughtful Republican, he does not see the appellation "Party of the Rich" as a pejorative. He bluntly offers, "the Democrats were always taking from those mean `rich' people to help the poor...(while) the Republicans wanted as many of us wealthy as possible." He dismisses the fabricated Kwanzaa as "a make believe story full of errors and falsehoods,' but strongly advocates celebrating legitimate historical days of importance to the Black Community like Martin Luther King's Day. Such valid occasions are important to ALL Americans. He is unafraid about bringing up the true racism of certain liberal icons. Like the equally brilliant Reverend Jesse Lee Petersen, he openly discusses the prejudice of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger whose opinions earned her accolades in Nazi Germany. Demonstrating both in-your face honesty and enviable wit, he titles one of his sub-chapters, "The War on Poverty is Over--and Poverty Won." His denunciation of misguided welfare programs further exhibits his striking intellect.

As the title intimates, Mr. Weaver skillfully employs the semantics of slavery throughout his work. He sees the monolithic Black viewpoint demanded from the modern day so-called civil rights establishment as a present-day version of the plantation. Those who dare to think outside the accepted box are the heirs of those courageous souls who bolted their "masters'" cotton farms for freedom. Both sets of rebels were courageous and tenacious, and each group persevered through diligence and hard work which the author rightly argues is the only option that yields success.

Mr. Weaver's intelligent work was published five years ago. It is time to hear more erudite assessments from his patriotic and empowering voice.

Average customer rating:

Excellent illumination of the Japanese experience in Hawaii

Not to be Forgotten

The reviewer above me obviously doesn't speak pidgin.

A great book for teenagers

This is a wonderful book that speaks from the soul!

All I Asking for Is My Body (Kolowalu Book)
Milton Murayama
Manufacturer: University of Hawaii Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0824811720

Customer Reviews:

Excellent illumination of the Japanese experience in Hawaii.......2003-01-25

Despite the title and despite the comment of an earlier reviewer, "All I Asking for Is My Body" is an extremely well written story that perfectly captures the Japanese-American experience in Hawaii. It is clear that Murayama himself experienced many of the things that his protagonist does, as his commentary on plantation life, reactions to the Pearl Harbor bombing, the traditional Japanese family system, and the importance of filial piety rings strong and true. Perhaps my only complaint about this book was its brevity, I wish Murayama would've gone into more detail at points, and the ending itself seemed a little too pat given the hardships the family had gone through together for years (decades really). I found myself wanting to know what Kiyoshi would have done had he not suddenly figured out the key to craps and freed his family from debt through gambling. After following his own beliefs into the army, would he have been willing or able to settle for plantation life again after the war?

One of the more interesting aspects of the book is the confidence all of the characters have in themselves as individuals. In contrast to John Okada's "No-No Boy," where the protagonist spends the entire novel searching for an identity (rather than feeling Japanese or feeling American he feels largely empty instead), that is not an issue in this story. Kiyoshi has a very strong family and community structure around him.

All I Asking for Is My Body is an excellent book, told very effectively through the eyes of a perceptive nisei who is often in difficult situations and forced to make tough choices. The experience of plantation workers in Hawaii is an oft-overlooked aspect of American history, but Murayama does a great job of bringing the time period to life again with a fluidity and grace that makes this story memorable and easy to understand, even for today's readers, who are removed from the time and place of this novel's action.

Not to be Forgotten.......2001-10-11

This coming-of-age story feels *very* immediate and gripping, and yet, at least for this white female urban mainland reader, the experiences and world depicted are VERY far-removed from what I know. So, Murayama gives you that sense of urgent involvement that makes something really fun to read, while letting you look into a really intense world that you may nothing about before reading this book -- namely, sugar plantation life for Japanese immigrants in Hawaii in the 1940s. A real thumbs up, and a book I'll never forget.

The reviewer above me obviously doesn't speak pidgin........2000-03-06

Poor grammar? The book's pidgin English may often a nebulous maze to walk through for an untrained reader, but I find this book a lyrical joy to read everytime.

The novel itself is a bildungsroman of heartfelt and often painful emotions: being tied to the land and exploited by the plantation, obligation to family, and the constant yearning after hope.

Looking beyond the difficult pidgin "grammar," this is a quick, but worthwhile read.

A great book for teenagers.......1999-02-04

I explored this book for my Hawaiian Lit class. The characters are vibrant and the use of local language draws the reader in to a world which is sadly starting to fade from the Islands.

Highly recommended.

This is a wonderful book that speaks from the soul!.......1998-12-18

I especially recommend this book to those who have grown up in Hawaii. I was immediately struck by the powerful images captured by Murayama in "All I Asking For is My Body". The language and grammer are a perfect compliment to the depiction of the characters as well as the simple storyline. Murayama manages to pierce the soul of the reader, evoking emotions so powerful, one feels as if they live, over and over again, through the eyes of an ancestor. I loved this book.

Foul Means: The Formation of a Slave Society in Virginia, 1660-1740 (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia)

Average customer rating:

Slavery was a pivotal cog in the colonial power wheel
Powerful

Foul Means: The Formation of a Slave Society in Virginia, 1660-1740 (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia)
Anthony S. Parent
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807854867
Release Date: 2006-09-26

Book Description

Challenging the generally accepted belief that the introduction of racial slavery to America was an unplanned consequence of a scarce labor market, Anthony Parent, Jr., contends that during a brief period spanning the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries a small but powerful planter class, acting to further its emerging economic interests, intentionally brought racial slavery to Virginia.

Parent bases his argument on three historical developments: the expropriation of Powhatan lands, the switch from indentured to slave labor, and the burgeoning tobacco trade. He argues that these were the result of calculated moves on the part of an emerging great planter class seeking to consolidate power through large landholdings and the labor to make them productive. To preserve their economic and social gains, this planter class inscribed racial slavery into law. The ensuing racial and class tensions led elite planters to mythologize their position as gentlemen of pastoral virtue immune to competition and corruption. To further this benevolent image, they implemented a plan to Christianize slaves and thereby render them submissive. According to Parent, by the 1720s the Virginia gentry projected a distinctive cultural ethos that buffered them from their uncertain hold on authority, threatened both by rising imperial control and by black resistance, which exploded in the Chesapeake Rebellion of 1730.

Customer Reviews:

Slavery was a pivotal cog in the colonial power wheel.......2007-06-01

Those who have a passion for understanding the often complex, and sometimes, ambiguous, relationship between slavery and freedom in the colonial world will be pleased to read Anthony Parent's new work - Foul Means. This well written and exhaustively researched work discusses the aforementioned dilemma in Virginia from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century. The central argument is that the planter elite in Virginia, or "great planters," established America's racial dilemma. Modifying traditional colonial arguments, the author advances the thesis that planters were not conscious of their actions. "The analysis," contends Parent, "challenges the generally accepted belief that the shift to racial slavery was an `unthinking decision' on the part of a wide variety of aspiring planters who were responding to market and labor forces." (2) According to Parent, they knew that slavery was a pivotal cog in the colonial power wheel, and they carefully and consciously leveraged all available resources to tilt the balance in their favor. As for motivation, the planters were inspired by the ever shifting economic tides that existed between the New and Old Worlds.

The author emphasizes the importance of labor in the early American south and in England. The crown initially supported servitude in the colonies as means to promote and encourage economic development in the New World, but as Parent carefully articulates, the English economists came to realize the pitfalls of this arrangement. Charles II implemented this philosophy and "promoted the slave trade to preserve English labor for England." (60) The development of the slave trade became, in essence, more economically and lawfully viable for the crown.

Continuing with a tightly weaved chronological narrative, Parent discusses the role of tobacco as an impetus for class divisions in, and outside of, colonial Virginia. The lower prices of tobacco prompted the planters to look elsewhere for economic fervor. In short, they "promoted slavery as a remedy for the troubled tobacco economy." (81) The theme that planters were opportunists who monopolized each, and all, opportunities to suppress threats is well articulated by the author, and it is evident that their calculated manipulations shaped colonial America. Furthermore, their economic well being became a euphemism for freedom and the planters became so enmeshed with "white society in 1705," that they were "prepared to preserve racial slavery to the death." (129)
Highlighting the significance of slave rebellions, Parent is one of the first scholars to illuminate that insurrections "threatened the order of Virginia society." (172) He pays particular attention to the Chesapeake Rebellion and ties it to the dual role Christianity played in the early seventeenth century. Initially viewed as a way of controlling slaves and Indians, it later became a catapult (i.e., rumors of Christianity leading to emancipation) for prompting slaves to rebel against the white Virginia society. This interesting and insightful approach, paints a clear picture of how religion and freedom were interconnected entities in colonial society.

The only somewhat troubling portion of Parent's narrative was his constant referral to the ruling class in Virginia as the "great planters." They were not "great" in the pejorative sense, and perhaps the author struggled to label them. But were they really great at all? These elitist, such as William Byrd, had a large hand in creating an environment which supported and embraced racism. The lasting consequences of their actions have colored and corrupted American society for centuries. Why not assign a more appropriate title to these men, such as "economic tsars," or "colonial corrupters?"

The complexities of Parent's narrative touch on a wide array of facets, and in sum they advance a novel paradigm in colonial history. He convincingly demonstrates how slavery emerged in early Virginia history. Academics and peers should applaud Parent for this highly readable and carefully argued account of colonial history. This work should be required reading for all history students and economic historians.

Powerful.......2006-12-09

"Foul Means" is a powerful expose' of the history of slavery in the Virginia Commonwealth. Because of its importance in earlier American history, one can say, "As Virginia goes, so goes America." Thus, in many ways this book traces the course of slavery throughout the thirteen colonies and beyond and provides a moving picture of the ruthlessness involved in the enslavement of an entire race.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

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