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kevin_shepherd's review against another edition
5.0
The Great Northern Migration
“Three decades after Emancipation and black folks had nothing. No matter. The flood of migrants did not cease, and the scramble to live did not squelch dreams of the north, the city, and the good life. All they heard back home, in dusty southern towns, were the lies and the assurances—things were easier up there and the white folks ain’t as evil. It took only a week to discover that neither was true.”
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments is American history via Black biography. It’s an examination of ordinary women surviving extraordinary bigotry, brutality and hardship. From the “negro tenements” of Philadelphia to the workhouses and reformatories of New York, black women with no financial resources either improvised or unraveled. There was no third option.
“A whole world is jammed into one short block crowded with black folks shut out from almost every opportunity the city affords, but still intoxicated with freedom.”
Through her research, Hartman commits to posterity a few life histories that some people today (see: The 1776 Commission) would rather we all forget. Rest assured, there are no mundane stories here. Although most of these women—housemaids and chorus girls, cooks and prison inmates—you have never heard of, some of these women, thanks to Hartman, you will never forget.
“Three decades after Emancipation and black folks had nothing. No matter. The flood of migrants did not cease, and the scramble to live did not squelch dreams of the north, the city, and the good life. All they heard back home, in dusty southern towns, were the lies and the assurances—things were easier up there and the white folks ain’t as evil. It took only a week to discover that neither was true.”
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments is American history via Black biography. It’s an examination of ordinary women surviving extraordinary bigotry, brutality and hardship. From the “negro tenements” of Philadelphia to the workhouses and reformatories of New York, black women with no financial resources either improvised or unraveled. There was no third option.
“A whole world is jammed into one short block crowded with black folks shut out from almost every opportunity the city affords, but still intoxicated with freedom.”
Through her research, Hartman commits to posterity a few life histories that some people today (see: The 1776 Commission) would rather we all forget. Rest assured, there are no mundane stories here. Although most of these women—housemaids and chorus girls, cooks and prison inmates—you have never heard of, some of these women, thanks to Hartman, you will never forget.
hxcpanda's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Hate crime, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Classism, Rape, and Lesbophobia
theduchess93's review against another edition
5.0
Everyone who works with archives in any capacity should be required to read this book.
thecamilleae's review against another edition
5.0
This book is powerful. The author's approach to writing in the voice of so many forgotten Black women touched me deeply. While some may know historical data points about the lives of Black people post-Reconstruction at the turn of the century, it is another thing to dig deep into the hearts and minds of Black women who sought freedom yet were still confined to the roles that society forced upon them as domestics or sexual objects for men. To learn about the women who attempted to carve a new path of independence and seek unconditional love in a seemingly loveless world was something I appreciated and valued about this book. This is not a book to rush through. You have to read a chapter or two and sit with what you read. It also is the kind of book that takes you down a deep Google search path, because if you're like me, you're curious to learn more details about the real life people you learn about in this book. For this who love Black women and want to deepen your appreciation for the survival skills they have in a crazy world like this, get this book.
tiffanywang29's review against another edition
5.0
A BRILLIANT book written by a BRILLIANT woman. I cannot sing enough praises for the way Hartman mixes her prose and rigorous archival research to ask the questions of representation for Black women and how much we really can - and should be able to - recover.