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A review by dkevanstoronto
The Weeping Time by Anne C. Bailey
5.0
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.