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A review by lauren_endnotes
Sugar in the Blood: A Family's Story of Slavery and Empire by Andrea Stuart
The thing that made this book great - the author's own ancestral research in telling the story of slave trade/plantation life in Barbados (and similarly for other colonized "sugar islands") - also contributed to some of its pitfalls.
In Part 1, Stuart continues to refer to her great* grandfather, George Ashby, with about 10 greats - all written out right there in the text (and in the audiobook). She does this a number of times, and it was just the beginning of some lax editorial decisions. There was so much research and then a big info-dump on the page. When the original sources are scant or non-existant, Stuart falls into conjecture (this "would have" happened they "would have" thought, stated frequently ). A little editing work would have made for a more positive reading experience, and a tighter story.
Part 2 evened out, and much time is spent with her ancestors in the early part of the 19th-century.This section was more absorbing, had more records to pull from, and placed her family's history in a broader context of events in / around the Caribbean, the UK, and in the US.
Part 3 includes her grandparents' and parents' generation in the US and back in Barbados, coming together for Barbados' independence from Britain in 1966, and her youth in the UK and Barbados.
In Part 1, Stuart continues to refer to her great* grandfather, George Ashby, with about 10 greats - all written out right there in the text (and in the audiobook). She does this a number of times, and it was just the beginning of some lax editorial decisions. There was so much research and then a big info-dump on the page. When the original sources are scant or non-existant, Stuart falls into conjecture (this "would have" happened they "would have" thought, stated frequently ). A little editing work would have made for a more positive reading experience, and a tighter story.
Part 2 evened out, and much time is spent with her ancestors in the early part of the 19th-century.This section was more absorbing, had more records to pull from, and placed her family's history in a broader context of events in / around the Caribbean, the UK, and in the US.
Part 3 includes her grandparents' and parents' generation in the US and back in Barbados, coming together for Barbados' independence from Britain in 1966, and her youth in the UK and Barbados.