Pricey, Graphic Books About Plantation Violence, Slavery
You have to really be interested in slavery to appreciate this book. Besides having that appreciation, you had better be prepared to pay $65 to show that appreciation.
Be prepared for some pretty graphic depictions of violence. Be aware that author Jeff Forret will also question if slaves committing violence against each other has anything to do with black-on-black crime today. And finally, readers will have to be prepared to suffer some eye strain to read the text.
I don’t think most people will enjoy this book. If they do, they must have sadistic tendencies because the writer cites hundreds of incidents in minute detail of slaves hitting, stabbing, maiming and often killing other slaves.
He also details some particularly gruesome treatments of slaves by their owners. In one case an owner branded a slave who was loosely bound to a tree in order to punish him for the crime of visiting his slave “wife” on another plantation without the owner’s permission. The slave scraped himself bloody against the tree trying to evade the owner’s hot branding iron.
I admire the writer’s diligence in tracking down and publishing these slave stories, mostly found in court records, but the book quickly gets repetitive. One only needs to read about a few murders before getting the picture.
There are some interesting tidbits Forret turns up, such as white-onwhite crime occurring much more often in the Old South than blackon-black crime. And (spoiler alert!) many of the crimes slaves committed against each other happened when they had been drinking and gambling. They were kind of like white folks in that respect.
From a practical reading standpoint, the heavy serifs of the typeface seem small and hard to read. Forret also does not like paragraphs much; two paragraphs often take up an entire page. The overall effect is that the pages seem to dazzle one’s eyes.
A larger typeface and more paragraphs creating some white space might have lessened that effect. But the book is already 395 densely packed pages of copy, and the publisher may have chosen to pack in as many words in as few pages as possible to keep the price down. I consider the $65 price tag for such a specialty market book to be too high.
If the details of slavery interest you, you may buy the book. If you are looking for a Civil War book, you won’t.
This is a hyper-focused biography of Frederick Douglass. Specifically, it chronicles Douglass’s 1845-47 lecture tour of England, Ireland and Scotland.
Even though the vast majority of the book investigates his European tour, the last two sections explain how the tour impacted Douglass, his politics in America and the world at large.
A Virginia officer in an Alabama regiment, commander the Army of Northern Virginia’s elite sharpshooters, Eugene Blackford’s correspondence spans nearly the entire war and allows a modern reader to see this turbulent era through the eyes of someone who lived it. His accounts of the sharpshooters; battles like Chancellorsville and Gettysburg; camp life; army leaders; and national and regimental politics are detailed and exceptional. Volume 1 of 3. Special 20% prepublication discount • 6x9 cloth, 235 pages, 10 Maps,
30 illustrations, footnotes, index, bib. – CFS Press, Asheville, NC
Maturity is one major theme that Tom Chaffin develops throughout all five sections. This maturity grows on two different levels: Douglass’s personal maturity and his development as a politician who cares about and advocates to rectify social and political inequality on a global scale.
Chaffin makes excellent use of primary sources, including Douglass’s personal correspondence. He skillfully weaves in quotations to prove his ideas and help familiarize readers with Douglass’s unique perspective and political voice.
The author includes a chronology to parallel the major events of Douglass’s life with the salient contemporary events and conditions in America and Europe.
The book’s copious citations are another great strength. Since he uses endnotes, his voluminous citations do not slow down the narrative. Instead, the endnotes serve as an excellent research tool to help readers find the necessary sources for deeper investigation.
The graphics are extremely helpful as they create a visual context to better understand Douglass and his time period. The many types of graphics include political cartoons, lithographs, photographs, illustrations and portraits.
One of the most haunting images shows poverty-stricken Irish peasants vying for admittance into a workhouse. As if the image isn’t striking enough, the caption explains the dismal conditions Irish endured
“A witness of a sort
that historians rarely encounter.” SHARPSHOOTER The Selected Letters and Papers of Maj. Eugene Blackford, C.S.A. Edited by Fred L. Ray
while living in these British-operated facilities.
By connecting the plight of the Irish to that of African-American slaves, Chaffin provides a much more complete understanding of how Ireland and the struggle of its people impacted Douglass’s abolitionist politics.
These images connect seamlessly with Douglass’s letters describing the crushing poverty he witnessed in Ireland.
This book is enthusiastically recommended for readers who enjoy detailed biographies.
Although connections to the American Civil War are mostly made through social and political comparison and commentary regarding Douglass’s European tour, readers interested in how one of the most famous abolitionists developed and honed his views overseas will greatly appreciate Giant’s Causeway.
Reviewer Evan McLaughlin, a Muhlenberg College graduate, is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a social studies teacher at Mountain View Middle School in Mendham, N.J.