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4.19 AVERAGE
4.19 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
There’s actually a story behind me picking up this book. In 2020 I read an article about a woman who was touring one of the Louisiana plantations and noticed that there wasn’t even a mention of slavery during the entire tour despite the fact that they were touring a plantation which depended on exploited slave labor to develop. She started digging into the history of the specific plantation location she toured and found that it hid an especially dark history that just wasn’t talked about.
I wanted to do some exploring of my own because I know there’s a lot of fucked up history that isn’t talked about and I wanted to learn more about it so that I could know about it and develop a better, more complex understanding of the United States.
This book was really interesting: definitely a traumatic read, especially if this is something that is triggering or personal to you, but I thought the storytelling was both thoughtful and really well researched. I feel like a lot of books forsake one for the other, but this book in my opinion did a masterful job of humanizing the experiences of the many slaves’s lives explored in the work as well as combining elements from memoirs and history to place it in a broader context of American history.
I liked the formatting, too. It was chronological and focused not only on harm but also on repair, the latter of which I think is a crucial piece that many books and pieces of media focusing on slavery overlook. It also focused a lot on the African cultures and languages and faith that the slaves from the Butler plantation inherited from their African ancestors and I really liked tracing those parts of their lives.
Honestly the only reason this book isn’t five stars is because it was a bit hard for me to read. It doesn’t diminish the quality of the book at all, it’s more of a personal-to-me thing.
I wanted to do some exploring of my own because I know there’s a lot of fucked up history that isn’t talked about and I wanted to learn more about it so that I could know about it and develop a better, more complex understanding of the United States.
This book was really interesting: definitely a traumatic read, especially if this is something that is triggering or personal to you, but I thought the storytelling was both thoughtful and really well researched. I feel like a lot of books forsake one for the other, but this book in my opinion did a masterful job of humanizing the experiences of the many slaves’s lives explored in the work as well as combining elements from memoirs and history to place it in a broader context of American history.
I liked the formatting, too. It was chronological and focused not only on harm but also on repair, the latter of which I think is a crucial piece that many books and pieces of media focusing on slavery overlook. It also focused a lot on the African cultures and languages and faith that the slaves from the Butler plantation inherited from their African ancestors and I really liked tracing those parts of their lives.
Honestly the only reason this book isn’t five stars is because it was a bit hard for me to read. It doesn’t diminish the quality of the book at all, it’s more of a personal-to-me thing.
Informative read especially for readers unfamiliar with slavery in the lowcountry, the domestic slave trade, and African American culture.
This is an excellent look at the largest slave auction held in the US, the Butler Auction of 1859 in which over 400 individuals were sold. It's a harrowing account, and Bailey does an excellent job of analysis of this auction and its impact on both the white and black individuals involved with the auction. I feel that this book is an excellent look at a single auction event, and is a necessary examination of the auction and its legacy - following in the legacy of the work of Walter Johnson and Frederic Bancroft but with a more harrowing approach. This monograph is very approachable, and that is its greatest strength beyond merely the strength of Bailey's analysis of one auction event and the community it impacted. There is also an excellent analysis of the Civil War's impact on this community, but I feel the best parts examined the auction and the descendants of those sold on that auction block and their efforts to maintain the memory of their ancestors.
EDIT: I've revisited some of the text and realized that there are some historical inaccuracies, which, in a historical text, is extremely alarming. Most of these inaccuracies are related to the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation and Reconstruction. I've changed my star rating to reflect the fact that I consider historical inaccuracies in a history monograph to be a significant issue.
EDIT: I've revisited some of the text and realized that there are some historical inaccuracies, which, in a historical text, is extremely alarming. Most of these inaccuracies are related to the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation and Reconstruction. I've changed my star rating to reflect the fact that I consider historical inaccuracies in a history monograph to be a significant issue.
dark
inspiring
slow-paced
This is a great book with masses of detailed scholarship presented in a readable format. This should be basic reading for anyone interested in American history. Fundamental to the experience of America's development into a modern nation was slavery. This book gets at the nature of being a commodity and chattel as a human being, a sencient individual and one that has family that you are being seperated from. How can a family be sold?
This book is excellent. The author does wish you to suffer and her constant repetitions leave you a little sad for her. This is a subject that she is objective enough to present as a clear and comprehensive account of the implications of the slave auction, but not one that she can or would separate her obvious trauma in dealing with this material. Perhaps she is right to do so. This is not a subject you can ever deal with in a cold and logical way. You have to feel how traumatic this is through the generations to gain any insight as to why it is relevant now.
On the other hand you might feel the author is not quite aware of how she is presenting this, as she is so caught up in the emotions. Also her idea that one way of healing is for America to be more Christian. This seems somewhat paradoxical not only biblical precedents and acceptance of slavery but also the history of the USA as being deeply religious since its inception until today.
Anne C. Bailey must be congratulated as a brilliant scholar who makes history matter, and matter in a fundamental way. She is also hopeful of a way to reconcile a society so divided by its history, even if she is not clear how.
This book is excellent. The author does wish you to suffer and her constant repetitions leave you a little sad for her. This is a subject that she is objective enough to present as a clear and comprehensive account of the implications of the slave auction, but not one that she can or would separate her obvious trauma in dealing with this material. Perhaps she is right to do so. This is not a subject you can ever deal with in a cold and logical way. You have to feel how traumatic this is through the generations to gain any insight as to why it is relevant now.
On the other hand you might feel the author is not quite aware of how she is presenting this, as she is so caught up in the emotions. Also her idea that one way of healing is for America to be more Christian. This seems somewhat paradoxical not only biblical precedents and acceptance of slavery but also the history of the USA as being deeply religious since its inception until today.
Anne C. Bailey must be congratulated as a brilliant scholar who makes history matter, and matter in a fundamental way. She is also hopeful of a way to reconcile a society so divided by its history, even if she is not clear how.
This was a harrowing but important read. It focuses on the largest slave auction that took place in America, an event that I was wholly ignorant about. Anne C. Bailey does an incredible job portraying this specific incident and zooming out to provide a thought provoking commentary on the slave experience in America as a whole.
One of the things I found so fascinating was the present day interviews with the actual living descendants of the auctioned slaves. There is a section in the book where Bailey describes memory has something that can be inherited throughout the generations. I have never thought about memory like this so it was an interesting perspective.
One of the things I found so fascinating was the present day interviews with the actual living descendants of the auctioned slaves. There is a section in the book where Bailey describes memory has something that can be inherited throughout the generations. I have never thought about memory like this so it was an interesting perspective.