Book o' the Month

[caille]

That would be My Confederate Kinfolk, by Thulani Davis. Check it out at your library, as I did, or at amazon.com, which I would link to, except my high-speed SBC cable is as fucking slow as the slowest fucking molasses would be in July, in deep space, strapped to the hull of Serenity. Jeebus. No, really, read the book. It's imperfectly edited,

Comments

[x_h00ine]

Sounds like a fascinating book. I will put it on my list. Coincidentally, I am reading Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution, which is a very personal look at the whole Darwin family, largely via their letters, writings and recollections. (It's by a descendent of Charles.) I'm reminded while reading it of how Darwin's opposition to slavery was central to his theory in its early stages. When he met slaves and so-called savages in the New World, he was appalled at the fiction that these were subhuman people.

Thanks for the book rec.

[namastenancy]

My grandmother on my father's side was a Spivey and they still have reunions at Spivey's Corner in North Carolina every four years. There are black Spivey's so obviously some parts of the family owned slaves. My mother's family certainly owned slaves - household slaves, a cook and a general man of all work. One of my way distant ancestors was a Methodist preacher in the carolinas around the 1700's and I found a mention of his house slave in his papers. But no mention of how he felt about the man or indeed, anything from my mother's family other than the deepest, most insulting racism. Which is one of the many reasons that I have as little to do with them as possible.

[keswindhover]

Happy belated birthday, Caille!