Slaves in the Family - Edward Ball
Slaves in the Family - Edward Ball
Non-Fiction
Pages: 496
I found this book very interesting and quite moving. In it the author, a member of an old plantation-owning family established in South Carolina since before the Revolution, sets out to trace the descendants of slaves owned by his family and uncover their stories. It's his attempt to come to terms with his family's history, and it's a remarkably honest and unflinching book, all the more so considering many members of his family were quite reluctant for him to write it, and he faced some hostility from many of the people he contacted regarding their slave ancestors.
He doesn't shy away from dealing with issues about beatings, violence and even executions on the plantation, about the masters' sexual relations with their slaves, about the 'mulatto' children that often resulted, about the frequent separations of families. You can really feel the internal struggle throughout this book - on the one hand he is deeply ashamed and guilty about his family's history and on the other he is understandably proud of his family's position in South Carolina and its long history. He repeatedly mentions how a person today cannot be held responsible for their actions of his forebears, but at the same time that doesn't mean that he isn't accountable for them.
It's a a brave book, all things considered, but I can't quite get past the fact that yet again it's a white man telling a black man's story. I wonder just how honest this book really is, just how selective he has been with his stories of his meetings with descendants of Ball slaves. I suppose, for all its talk of telling the slaves' stories, it's really more about Edward Ball himself and his own complicated feelings towards his family's history, both the black and white sides of it.
Non-Fiction
Pages: 496
I found this book very interesting and quite moving. In it the author, a member of an old plantation-owning family established in South Carolina since before the Revolution, sets out to trace the descendants of slaves owned by his family and uncover their stories. It's his attempt to come to terms with his family's history, and it's a remarkably honest and unflinching book, all the more so considering many members of his family were quite reluctant for him to write it, and he faced some hostility from many of the people he contacted regarding their slave ancestors.
He doesn't shy away from dealing with issues about beatings, violence and even executions on the plantation, about the masters' sexual relations with their slaves, about the 'mulatto' children that often resulted, about the frequent separations of families. You can really feel the internal struggle throughout this book - on the one hand he is deeply ashamed and guilty about his family's history and on the other he is understandably proud of his family's position in South Carolina and its long history. He repeatedly mentions how a person today cannot be held responsible for their actions of his forebears, but at the same time that doesn't mean that he isn't accountable for them.
It's a a brave book, all things considered, but I can't quite get past the fact that yet again it's a white man telling a black man's story. I wonder just how honest this book really is, just how selective he has been with his stories of his meetings with descendants of Ball slaves. I suppose, for all its talk of telling the slaves' stories, it's really more about Edward Ball himself and his own complicated feelings towards his family's history, both the black and white sides of it.