Human Property Hanging in the Family Tree Yields a Harvest
Human Property Hanging in the Family Tree Yields a Harvest
Human Property Hanging in the Family Tree Yields a Harvest, is a true story of the life and times of Mariah and her family. Mariah was born a slave, witnessed the brutality of slavery, and fought the KKK. Mariah’s departure to transcend from human property to a human being was met with opposition, as she and her family channeled through the violent Reconstruction Era. As the matriarch of her family, Mariah, was unwavering as she attempted to sail through the iniquitous institution of inequality. She remained steadfast in her hope of attaining the American dream.
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Seriously? Couldn’t finish, quit at 40%,
This book was not written by an author. It just cannot have been. The grammatical errors are so distracting, the flow is stacatto, and the author assumes (because she simply cannot know) many of the thoughts and emotions, not to mention making up filler between events. Make it fiction and make it interesting already. I love history, but I couldn’t finish this book. If you’re looking for what this book COULD have been, try Lalita Tademy’s “Cane River”.Cane River (Oprah’s Book Club)
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|A blend of history and personality.,
This chronicles the life of a slave who was a relative of the author, and it is with this perspective she explores the story of who she worked for, how she was sold and even how she was used a chattel to guaruntee a loan.
The research is primarily based upon land sale documents. Back then slaves were literally mere property to buy, sell, and barter. The problem with the underlying documentation, which is well flagged by the author, is that her name (as well as the names of her relatives) were frequently misspelled which doesn’t help with tracing this sort of history.
It’s a very personal history, and clearly the author has gone to great pains to include as many details as she can. In a few places this leads to a slight feeling of ‘And then, and then and then’ which interrupts the flow somewhat. Of course these facets would be invaluable to anyone looking into this family’s history, but this is a very niche section of the audience who might be interested.
I do think this could have been made more interesting by erring on the fictionalised, and telling ‘Her story’ rather than chronicling the events of her life. It feels like this should belong in academic archives, or as part of a history book rather than being a stand alone title. It’s a fascinating read, and has a great deal of insight into the slave trading system in the deep south, but gets bogged down a little in the minutae. If you want a very unique, and compellingly written chronicle of one woman’s life as a slave, this is worth a read. If you are looking for a more objective non fiction text this doesn’t quite fit the bill as it the overview is sandwiched between a ‘micro’ view of the life of one slave which may or may not be representative of the era as a whole (I think it is, but I wanted to flag this isn’t an empircal study).
All in all, it blurs the line between objective historical non fiction, and personal literarture because it’s so personal. That personality however is part of it’s charm, and helps to bring the history back to life. A laudable attempt which does interest and engage the reader.
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|Excellent.,
First and foremost please keep in mind that Human Property Hanging in the Family Tree Yields a Harvest is not a memoir but is a work of non-fiction. It’s loaded with dates, facts and figures as most historical accounts need to be.
What you get here that you may not find in other works of historical non-fiction though is the author’s direct connection to the source material. Ann Lee is recounting her family history with this work and because of that she is able to provide asides in the tale. This is an inspiring, historical, look at a family’s journey through America.
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