This is about a very specific event in Anne's life, her relationship with the French court and royal family.
This isn't really a b3. 5 Stars Rounded up
This is about a very specific event in Anne's life, her relationship with the French court and royal family.
This isn't really a biography about Anne Boylen. It's more an overview of that time period and the author's theory that Anne's downfall was increased a betrayal she suffered from the French royal Court.
I didn't agree before reading this and don't agree after reading. That said, I think the author has done her research and makes an excellent fact based case....more
This was interesting. I'm not well versed enough on the history 9f this period to judge the accuracy of the history offered in this text. This is a quicThis was interesting. I'm not well versed enough on the history 9f this period to judge the accuracy of the history offered in this text. This is a quick, interesting, and light historical book....more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Andrew Lipman, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley.
I'm unfamiliar wi3.5 Stars Rounded Down
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Andrew Lipman, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley.
I'm unfamiliar with this time period in the history of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. As a result, I am unable to judge the accuracy of the historical information shared. I have an audiobook copy and not a digital copy, so I am unsure if this history accurately portrays the sources used. Since this was published before I requested the audiobook I did try Hoopla & Libby for a library copy of the digital book so I could verify the sources used but neither library had a copy of the digital book. Hoopla does have the audiobook for any interested. That said, the sources mentioned in the text check out and seem to be used accurately. The author is a professor, and so his resources in this field are probably accurate or at the least based on the latest research. The text indicates this to be so, and I am unable to verify independently otherwise.
This was a treasure trove of information on the Wampanoag peoples in the early stages of European colonization. I learned so much about living situations, family settings, women's roles in society, children's roles and activities, family life, and just wow. I was so thoroughly engrossed in these details. I had no idea so much information was available to researchers. I truly need a digital copy of this book so I can mine the resources for more information. I need more than what this book offers.
This is structured in such a way that the reader really learns about early colonization of the Americas by multiple European colonizing peoples. This is important because this period in European history, with which I am very familiar, is frought with complicated history and inter-country struggles. That said, some of the information given on European nations at this time is slanted.
The author takes great pains to point out that the Wampanoag engaged in slavery adjacent practices and pointed out Arabic and other European slavery adjacent practices at this time. I don't like this. This author is the descendant of the Europeans who committed this genocide in the Americas; less than 3% of the current US population is Native American, and about 5% of Canada is First Nations. Indigenous peoples in these nations live on Reservations & Reserves, they aren't allowed political power, and their population is not represented in the federal government of either colonizing nation at population percentage rates. In many respects, they live in 'ghettos' in which they don’t have access to clean water and food is not affordable. They live under apartheid. We simply don't use those words to describe their treatment because it would reflect badly on our respective countries. They aren't the only marginalized group in North America treated this way, but considering this is their land, it's especially heinous.
I take issue with the author pretending that Captain John Smith who was briefly captured while he was a mercenary soldier and comparing that to Squanto's capture and expulsion to Europe. Squanto did not hire himself out as a soldier, nor was he fighting a war when he was captured. His captors stole him when he was engaged in regular trade. If John Smith had been stolen from the London wharf while unloading his ship, maybe that would compare. What was done to Squanto and other Indigenous Peoples of the Americas was something that Europeans would never consider doing to other European nations. Such behavior would be considered cowardly, anti-christian, and deeply shocking. Other European nations would've declared war on a European nation that was moving in this manner in Europe. This behavior was only considered okay because it was done to non-Europeans. Early racism is why these horrible practices were carried out, and greed is why they became normalized. Historians need to say this explicitly and not waste time trying to negate the genocidal behaviors of their klancestors. This pretense that everyone was behaving badly is a very colonialist viewpoint. Squanto and the Wampanoag deserve better.
This audiobook is narrated by David Colacci. David did a decent job with this. His tone was educational but not droning or boring. It's fairly good for an information dense text like this.
Thank you to Andrew Lipman, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Odie Henderson, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley.
This audiobook is narrated by the authThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Odie Henderson, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley.
This audiobook is narrated by the author, Odie Henderson. Having the author narrate their own work can sometimes go wrong. Not in this case, though. I loved hearing Odie's own excitement and emotion as he narrated this fun book.
This is for folks who know and love these movies as well as for folks who've not watched a single movie and aren't entirely sure what blaxploitation movies are. This is a fun and fundamental education about this era in film, told in a nostalgic tone.
I grew up in the 80s, so I missed the opportunity to see these movies in the theatre. Like the author, I grew up patronizing first family or individually owned video rental stores and then Blockbuster once they put the smaller places out of business. Unlike the author, my parents and family did not rent or talk much about blaxploitation films. My first exposure to the blaxploitation genre was in high school. I had a teacher who was a fan, and I think I rented and watched Shaft. I grew up in Detroit, so I'm somewhat surprised that I didn't have more exposure.
This book takes you behind the scenes of this era; the movies, the actors, and the filming itself. I truly loved this. This made me miss my late father tremendously as he was a huge movie buff, and I bet he saw these films in the theatre. After Eddie Murphy did that Netflix Dolomite movie, my husband and I laughed all through the original movie. These movies represent an era, and I enjoyed this history tremendously.
I grew up watching Spike Lee Joints, and I want to point out that these blaxploitation films proved that a Black audience existed and paved the way for filmmakers like Lee. I also want to say that this covered early Black filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux, this is a thorough history of Black Cinema.
Thank you to Odie Henderson, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This was easily accessible to lay readers of history. This was reasonably paced and quite interesting. The reader is expected to know the basic BritishThis was easily accessible to lay readers of history. This was reasonably paced and quite interesting. The reader is expected to know the basic British monarchy or they might be a bit lost in this text....more
I quite liked this. It was thoroughly researched, very readable/accessible for lay readers of history. I felt that Baker took a somewhat royalist view I quite liked this. It was thoroughly researched, very readable/accessible for lay readers of history. I felt that Baker took a somewhat royalist view of Eleanor & Simon de Montfort. I think that bias, not really bias, more attitude impacted how he views her. There's a time after which, after more than a decade of thoughtless treatment by Henry III, Eleanor de Montfort can hold up a Treaty with King Louis in exchange for her tardy dowry payments. The author implies this was wrong of Eleanor de Montfort, but I don't agree. It's not Eleanor de Montfort's fault that Henry was perpetually broke. Henry found lands & money for their de Lusignan siblings, Eleanor de Montfort was within her rights to demand the same. She'd already tried asking nicely repeatedly. Her efforts were valid. It's weird because Baker seems to recognize that historical sexism has colored the public memory of Eleanor of Provence. So it was somewhat frustrating that he was unable to see Eleanor de Montfort's viewpoint given her biography made up half of this book. Perhaps this is just a view of biographers choosing a side, like modern biographers of Catherine of Aragon or Anne Boleyn who weirdly feel like they need, in modern times, to take a side in the women's dispute. It's weird because the dispute was between Henry VIII & Catherine of Aragon and later between Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn. There was no formal conflict between Catherine of Aragon & Anne Boleyn, I digress.
I removed a star because of awkward phrasing surrounding antisemitism in Henry III & Eleanor of Provence's Court.
There's an incident at the very end of chapter 6 in which a child's body is found dead in a well. The child's mother claims that Jewish folks ritually sacrificed her Christian child. This is a very common antisemitic claim during this time period. There's been no evidence in historical studies that there ever existed a group of Jewish folks that ritually sacrificed christian's nor their kids. This is just how antisemitism operated in society at that time. No doubt the boy was murdered and given what we know in modern times and understand about crime, it was possibly someone in his own family, almost certainly someone in his own community. Violence like this tends to fall along intra-community lines. Often ostracized and deeply oppressed communities are blamed due to bias in the dominant community in situations like this. It still happens today, which is why immigration is such a hot-button political issue. Statistically, very little crime is committed by immigrants, but that's not how society chooses to look at these relationships. Instead, the author chooses to act like, from this great distance, we can't possibly know what occurred. This is true but leaves the impression that Jewish folks might have ritually murdered christian children. I'm sure the author isn't himself antisemitic and I'm sure he meant no offense. Still, words matter, and it's incumbent on current historians to speak respectfully and carefully in regards to historically oppressed communities. Most of those communities are today still battling the long term impact of these oppressive policies. For me, that includes giving historical context to biased claims. With just a few simple sentences he could clear up that this practice wasn't a real concern which acts to bolster the modern communities claims of the same. Small changes can have large and far reaching impact....more
I did not realize when I requested this from NetGalley that it had ties to my hometown. In my teens, I adored The Shrine of the Black Madonna bookstorI did not realize when I requested this from NetGalley that it had ties to my hometown. In my teens, I adored The Shrine of the Black Madonna bookstore. I regularly visited as a high school student in the early 90s. It's a beloved aspect of Black Detroit. I'm embarrassed to admit I had no idea this was attached to a church, much less the history of the church founder.
While the focus on Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Nationalist church he founded in Detroit was my favorite aspect of this, I learned about Black towns as well. This focused on the time period post-Civil War and included the author's own family town of Promise Land, Tennessee. This history is enhanced by the author's father's perspective on Black Utopias as a former convict with memories of Promise Land.
This creates a rich tapestry of a narrative, including history & politics deftly mixed with the concept of a Black Utopia. The author himself points out that when the concept of an American Utopia is brought up, Black towns don't immediately come to mind. Yet the author makes the case that Black Towns, Cities, Villages, etc, by their very existence, were founded on utopic ideals, and the author makes a compelling case.
The history of Black towns isn't always pretty, and few of these places still exist. Those that do still exist, often they are barely functioning and mostly empty. None the less these places speak to a uniquely Black American version of the American Dream. After all, as the author themselves points out, a Utopia isn't concerned with being profitable being too busy focusing on what is possible. In that regard, all of these places succeeded.
The narrator of this audiobook is Dion Graham. Dion did great with their narration of this text. The dialogue flowed well, and the narrator managed to convey warmth and interest in this rich history.
I need to plan a visit to the church and bookstore, now that I know it's still open
Thank you to Aaron Robertson, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This ebook was made available for me to read and review by Carole Boston Weatherford, Lerner Publishing Group, and NetGalley.
The illustrator of this pThis ebook was made available for me to read and review by Carole Boston Weatherford, Lerner Publishing Group, and NetGalley.
The illustrator of this picture book is David Elmo Cooper. The illustrations are very powerful and beautifully artistic. The illustrator notes indicate that he purchased dolls like those used in the experiment, took pictures of them, and the artwork is created from composite images. The effect is both beautiful and somewhat haunting.
This is well researched and delicately phrased. This is a very difficult experience to explain to young children. Last year, I was trying to explain the civil rights movement in terms a 2nd grader can understand to my own grandkids, so I appreciate the struggle of the author. The information is factual and uncomfortable. The book adds nice images and softens the story by telling it from the dolls point of view. This manages a challenging topic very elegantly.
The text is a poem that was modified for a picture book, which worked well. I would consider this a low trauma introduction to this subject with grade school-age kids. While this is geared towards younger kids, it's also a good resource for an older demographic because it contains quite a few facts, including an expanded further reading list on this topic. As well as pictures and facts from the actual studies. This functions as a resource beyond the picture book aspect.
Thank you to Carole Boston Weatherford, Lerner Publishing Group, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ebook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by George M. Johnson, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
I highly encourage the reader toThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by George M. Johnson, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
I highly encourage the reader to consume this as an audiobook. This is narrated by the author George M. Johnson with a lively jazz based musical soundtrack. Each chapter we are introduced to another queer Harlem Renaissance artist, and as they are introduced, music plays. If they were a singer its a song of theirs. Mr. Johnson's narration is powerful. The listener can hear the emotion in his voice. This is beautifully done, as much of an experience as it is a book.
I love the Harlem Renaissance. I've studied it since I was school-age. Like the author, Black History Month was my favorite time in school. I love history, and reading about historical Black folks always makes me happy. I'm also queer. I'm older than this author and grew up in a time none of this was discussed or accepted. So I love that resources like this exist for today's young readers. I remember when I found out Josephine Baker was bisexual. I held that detail close to my heart throughout my childhood.
This book also serves as a wonderful introduction to the artists of the Harlem Renaissance. I love that the author pulls no punches and calls in bad behaviors like internalized homophobia, colorism, classism, and misogynoir.
Even if you don't have a young person to suggest this to or purchase this for, consider giving it a listen as an adult. It's short, entertaining, and packed with important facts.
Thank you to George M. Johnson, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
4.5 Stars Rounded Up This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Jacqueline Jones, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley.
This was exc4.5 Stars Rounded Up This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Jacqueline Jones, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley.
This was excellent, respectful, knowledgeable, well-sourced, and interesting. It mostly avoids focusing on the more harrowing aspects of slavery in the Antebellum period. I'd rate this as low as far as slavery trauma focus. Though this does focus on segregation and racism in Boston and the wider Northern states. Perhaps in terms of trauma, this is closer to reading about the Civil Rights Movement than many texts that deal with chattel slavery. I add this to say: don't shy away from this for fear of trauma. That's not the tone or focus.
The main subject matter and focus of this is Black folks' opportunities and everyday lives in Boston in this era. This takes specific individuals and follows their lives and includes some generational information when available. This explores the opportunities available in employment, housing, and personal lives. So this includes marriages, births, relocating even outside of Boston, and what the records reveal about how this person ended their days. This focuses on the basic struggle for even free Black folks during the antebellum era. It's very in-depth and fascinating. Often, the history of this period tends to focus on the few famous Black individuals, but while this did include them, the focus was primarily on regular folks' struggles. This highlighted the differences that Black women faced in finding and maintaining freedom and affording to live. This was a hard and harrowing life for the vast majority of folks. Even more well-known figures like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman really struggled to survive in the available economy. I was really enlightened at the struggle between the established Black Boston community and the immigrant Irish community. Irish folks attacked established Black communities and accused them of taking their jobs and housing. It was wild. I forever think Irish Americans badly bungled this. Imagine the world we would all live in if Irish Americans had made common cause with Black Americans rather than focus on whiteness.
I really liked that this focused on and gave examples of the hypocrisy in white liberals/abolitionists of this era. I mean, it's historically focused but also relevant today. Many wealthy white liberal will march for Black Lives Matter but only so long as those lives stay in their respective red-line restricted communities. This focuses on the fact that white abolitionists were overwhelmingly anti-Black and held very troubling views of Black folks. This isn't a view of white abolitionists that we often see presented this clearly.
White abolitionists were largely in control of the funds raised to help formerly enslaved Black folks, whether escapees or post civil war. They seemed to operate from a fear that Black folks were inherently lazy and needed to be 'encouraged' to work hard. So, almost the same view that enslavers held of Black folks. Their policy was to give funds to aid escape but nothing to help formerly enslaved folks settle in a new place without family. In effect, their attitude reminded me of today's pro-lifers. Pro-life/anti-abortionists are obsessed with halting abortion but don't want to feed, clothe, or house these unplanned babies they insisted be born. If you consider the base wealth of the major white abolitionists, their hypocrisy is glaring. It's the historical version of Kim Kardashian's empty-headed 'Nobody wants to work anymore' nonsense.
I was appalled at the bootstrap rhetoric employed by white abolitionists post Civil War. At the same time, these same white abolitionists largely refused to employ Black folks in their businesses. They'd hire a few favored folks in their home, but they refused to integrate their businesses. Instead, white abolitionists overly focused on Black folks' willingness to work. As if enslaved people were taken care of and not exploited. It's frustrating because historically, white women really struggled post Civil War, and that was behind many of the Jim & Jane Crow era laws requiring Black women to work outside of the home. There were laws forcing Black women into domestic labor because white women were unprepared to care for their own homes, families, and children. As enslaved peoples, Black folks had been providing enough labor to provide for themselves and to enrich an entire white demographic/community/country and enrich Europe in the process. So clearly, they could provide just fine for themselves as they had been since they 'arrived' in the colonies.
This also does an excellent job pointing out what would today be termed 'respectability politics', which was how some Black folks responded, and continue to respond, to racist and eugenicist views common in US society. This behavior isn't directly called out nor a focus of the book, but it is included. This is important because just like the Jim & Jane Crow era racist beliefs that still plague our nation, this also works to increase racism and oppression. Black folks don't need to prove anything to be worthy of basic humanity. This is just a function of internalized racism.
This audiobook is narrated by Leon Nixon. Leon does an excellent job keeping the narrative interesting and from feeling like a very long history lecture. I pretty much binged this, and my attention never waivered.
Thank you to Jacqueline Jones, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Matthew D. Morrison, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley.
This audiobook is narrated byThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Matthew D. Morrison, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley.
This audiobook is narrated by the author Matthew D. Morrison. The author's excitement and emotions are evident in his voice and that helps to build excitement for the subject matter. I was deeply appreciative of the choice to have him narrate this, pure perfection!
This was truly interesting on many levels. It helped that as I was reviewing this I was also reviewing a nonfiction audiobook on music as medicine by Daniel J. Levitin. This narrative traces the sounds of Black folks in the Americas from 1800's slavery through the turn of the century during the creation of America's musical sound. This focuses on minstrel shows and how these shows export the first aspect of truly American culture abroad. Minstrel shows directly lead to Jim Crow Laws. This isn't a new idea as Jim Crow is itself a minstrel character from these shows. Early Minstrel players were Irish men and because the Irish claim to whiteness was shaky at that time period, they seek to cement the inferiority of Black folks. I think they thought it would work to add them to the collective idea of whiteness and it did. These minstrel actors specifically wanted white audiences overseas to understand that Black folks were genetically inferior to white folks. Minstrel shows cemented eugenic ideas into American culture at home and Western culture worldwide.
This offers a rich history of US copyright law and procedures. How copyright laws were used to protect white men's intellectual property in a way that specifically disadvantaged Black musicians. This offers so much lost history surrounding Black music traditions. Incredibly detailed and enlightening.
This also tracks the theft of Black sound which includes movement and dance by white minstrel actors. They intentionally wanted to degrade Black folks, they often used their own music with celtic origins but added unique Black aspects to it, such as scat (the singing of nonsense sounds) and the call and repeat pattern that is a hallmark of Black American music. Their shows also offered an offensive and white supremacist revision of Black movement and dance.
Surprisingly modern music is the long arm result of these shows. Of course the minstrel tradition is still practiced today by white artists such as Weird Al Yankovich. Also it could be argued by artists such as Post Malone & Pink, who use Black music to become popular because they failed in their chosen music genre which was created by Black sound but is now dominated by white artists, like America Country music.
I deeply enjoyed reading about historical Black entertainers who were lost to history because white men stole and copyrighted their material. The movement of Juba to tap dance really fascinated me. I watched all the videos I could find on Juba on YouTube. This was just truly an interesting experience. I highly recommend this book to history buffs and music buffs alike.
Much of this history is upsetting, frustrating and demeaning to Black folks specifically. The author/narrator handles this deftly so the reader can enjoy the knowledge as much as possible. This isn't easy to manage with weighty subjects like slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, etc. This is beautifully handled and incredibly interesting.
Thank you to Matthew D. Morrison, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own. ...more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Anthony E. Kaye, Brilliance Audio, and NetGalley.
This has very interesting historiThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Anthony E. Kaye, Brilliance Audio, and NetGalley.
This has very interesting historical aspects but there are serious problems with the portrayal of Nat in this narrative.
This text offers rich a plethora of historical information on Protestant churches in early colonial America, through the Revolution and into the early part of the 19th Century in which Nat's Rebellion occurs. This includes quite a lot of biblical information, bordering on too much, as well as information about the formation of the American Methodist Church. The text also included interesting and relevant information about other Slave Uprisings in the Americas and the Caribbean, such as Gabriel Prosser and the Haitian Revolution. Not as successfully handled is the focus on assumptions regarding how enslaved folks felt about and processed the christian god. Missing in this narrative is the very real and documented practice of what are today called 'African Traditional Religions'(ATR) amongst the enslaved, even christians. Black American religious traditions & superstitions are entirely left out of this narrative and that includes meaningful discussion of Hoodoo, Conjure, Voodoo, etc. The idea that these cultural ideas and mythology in no way impacted Nat or that this was not as much a part of his everyday life as christianity is not a reasonable deduction. For example Frederick Douglas, who was not known to be a believer in or practitioner of ATR, credited High John the Conqueror Root for fighting back against his overseer/enslaver. It's not unreasonable to believe that if Nat was led by religion, it was likely more than Christianity.
The entire theory set forth in this text rests on the belief that the white interviewer, Gray, who recorded Nat's confessions in jail did so honestly. That's highly unlikely, as in there is to date no recorded incident of this ever happening, even when the white interviewer/biographer was friendly towards the Black person they interviewed. Also it assumes that Nat was candidly honest with Gray and I don't know why any adult with a reasonable understanding of history at this time period would give weight to either of these assumptions. For an example I offer the debacle regarding Sojourner Truth's famous, 'Ain't I a Woman?' speech. The speech supposedly given by Ms. Truth and recorded by white feminists and abolitionist, Frances Dana Barker Gage, is now understood to be the offensive exaggeration of Ms. Gage. Frederick Douglas began his own paper, The North Star, in part because of the inaccuracies of white abolitionists. This theory is a major reach and the text never even addresses these questions in a frank and real manner. The narrative attempts to tie Nat to biblical warriors more than other Black leaders of Uprisings during chattel slavery. Unfortunately over the course of the text this framing conjures up 'magical negro' stereotyping which is cringey at best.
The narratives tone toward Nat's Uprising is a touch condescending. There was a reference to Nat's 'bias' towards white people or white enslavers? It's unclear. This is a white supremacist view of Enslaved folks uprisings. Clearly, the biased party are the enslavers, who enslaved Black people. When someone is oppressed, hating your oppressor is both natural and normal. As Malcolm X said, it's not violence, it's common sense. In a very real sense its self defense. Bias would be if West Africans showed up in Europe to steal people and enslave them because they were European. Just wildly offensive to refer to an actual enslaved person as biased against their enslavers. I don't understand how that wasn't removed in editing, it's horribly white supremacist. The modern understanding of and use of the word bias and why being biased is wrong is predicated on the idea that the biased person has no reason to hold bias, they are unharmed by the party they are biased against. For a victim to harm their enslaver isn't bias or violence, it's both common sense and self defense. The author is by default arguing that slave owners are more entitled to life than the Black people they enslaved. This racist thinking further implies that slavery is ok for Black people and for Black folks to fight against it and by default the white people employing that violence, using the same violent tools used against them is somehow immoral or biased on the part of the Black folks rebelling. This is just deeply offensive and unacceptable in a modern text about slavery.
The text directly states that Nat wasn't lead by 'modern' 'liberal' values like freedom and equality. This is just factually untrue. Even during the Antebellum period, enslaved folks repeatedly risked everything for freedom. Equality was a founding principle of both the French & Haitian revolutions. This is demonstrably not factual and reeks of a white historian will study this rationally and let the emotionally compromised Black folks know how they should feel about and view a member of their own community. This is just a horribly dated and white supremacist view of history.
In the final chapter the narration again seems to imply that Nat wasn't entitled to meet violence with violence in order to gain freedom. The text states that the slave owners that died might have changed their mind. This pretends as if slavery is a victimless, nonviolent crime. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those that died, died for the crimes they had already committed. Slavery itself was a crime characterized by unspeakable violence to an extent that can still be read on the bones of the enslaved today. The text doesn't really address the horror that made up everyday slavery: the beatings, the starvation, the lack of basic necessities like clothing and shelter, the family separation, the sexual violence participated in by every stratus of white society from the poor to the wealthy white men, women, children and everyone in between raped Black enslaved men, women, children and everyone in between. Black enslaved infants were used as bait for gators. Black enslaved peoples could have their anuses packed with gun powder because white men were bored. White men raped in packs in the slave quarters and they raped men particularly as part of the practice known as 'slave breaking'. Children were hung in closets for hours by their thumbs because they were the product of rape and it upset their white enslavers wives. The text overly focuses on the violence of the Uprising and refuses to equally focus on the violence that was everyday part of the system of chattel slavery in the Americas. How were Black folks supposed to be respond to that level of violence peacefully in a way that honored that their torturers might at some point have a change of heart? This is just an offensive and white supremacist view that values white life during what was a genocide of Black lives. It's a deeply offensive and tone deaf viewpoint. This is disrespectful in the extreme because Black folks employed every avenue open to them to get away from slavery. They used every tool in their arsenal from lawsuits in court to outright running away. White people as a group employed vast amounts of violence including death to oppress Black folks. They deserved to be met with the force they employed and every white person that died in every single slavery uprising deserved it and more. The genocided don't owe their genociders anything. To suggest otherwise is deeply offensive and a core function of white supremacy. The violence of white enslavers started at birth. Most white enslavers babies were nursed by Black enslaved women. Usually those women's own infants died of starvation while their milk was often exclusively reserved for the white enslaver infant. There were no innocent white folks who were enslavers, independent of their age. Also this is for the surviving descendants of the victims of this violence to decide, not the descendants of the enslavers of those victims to characterize and own. How dare this author even fix his fingers to type such an offensive, racist and white supremacist nonsense.
This was mostly disappointing and offensive. I'd say roughly 25% of the history contained in this text adds meaningfully to the history of Black folks enslaved in what is now the USA. Less than 5% of that useful information pertained to Nat Turner. This texts real value lies in the study of the rise of Protestant religions in North America. It's weakness is it's entire narrative on Nat Turner.
The narrator of this audiobook is Leon Nixon. Leon does a wonderful job keeping the text moving. This is somewhat weighty and heavy subject. The author's tone was lively and respectful.
Thank you to Anthony E. Kaye, Brilliance Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own. ...more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Veronica Chambers, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley.
This is narrated by Janina EdwardThis audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Veronica Chambers, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley.
This is narrated by Janina Edwards. Janina is one of my favorite audiobook narrators, and she knocked it out of the park with this one. For the most part, in this book, the narration felt like Ida's voice and kind of faded into the background.
This is full of obvious research and beautifully written. I would consider this to be perfect for teens and preteens with an interest in historical fiction. This is marketed to young adult audiences, but I'd encourage this for adults of all ages who are fans of the incomparable Ms. Wells. It was a delight to visit her as a young lady finding her way and her life's work. I particularly loved her life as a teacher: the adorable kids, socializing with other educated Black folks, the lyceum literary salon performances, the early dating experiences, this is extremely charming. I thoroughly enjoyed this, though it did drag slightly in places and seemed to have some plotting hiccups. The writing was good enough that I wasn't too distracted by these issues.
The only confusion I had was regarding the phrase 'The Upper Tenth' in reference to Black upper-class society. I think the author is actually referring to 'The Talented Tenth', a phrase coined by W.E.B Du Bois. Du Bois later rejected the classist, internalized racist thinking behind The Talented Tenth theory. To my understanding 'The Upper Tenth', at the time this novel is set, referred to the richest 10,000 white folks in New York. My point is I'm pretty sure in this time period Ida would've probably used the Talented Tenth phrasing. I could be wrong about this as I have not studied the Black upper class extensively at all.
Thank you to Veronica Chambers, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This is SO good. This history is shocking and upsetting but also fascinating. I had heard of The Freedman's Bank but wasn't at all familiar with the dThis is SO good. This history is shocking and upsetting but also fascinating. I had heard of The Freedman's Bank but wasn't at all familiar with the details, only the impact on the Black Community. I grew up in Detroit and am a proud graduate of Detroit Public Schools. I graduated in the early 90s. My high school history teacher told our class that the failure of the Freedman's Bank is why so many of our relatives don't use banks. My family used banks, but I had Black teachers at the school who did not. I had neighbors who did not. When I was a sales manager for a major cell phone company in the city with mostly Black employees, half of my staff refused direct deposit and had no bank accounts. I knew it was tied to this historical banking crisis, but I had not realized how severe the failure was. So when I saw this book on NetGalley, I was extra excited to review it.
This was fascinating in so many ways. I did not know much about early banks in the US. I had not realized that Savings & Loan operated as a style of Bank, not as an option at a regular bank. It's been lost in the history of the immediate post Antebellum period, but white abolitionists become obsessed at the end of the Civil War with this weird idea that formerly enslaved folks were lazy and looking for charity. There was no concern that former enslavers, who had proven themselves generationally to be too lazy to nurse or even care for their own kids, would be expecting charity from the government. In fact, former enslavers were expecting governmental charity and received it in restitution for the loss of their formerly enslaved property. Yes, quiet as it's kept, enslavers were paid reparations for slavery but the concern was that the formerly enslaved might have expectations of fairness. Let me not digress here.
The Savings and Loan Freedman's Bank was established primarily so that Black Union Soldiers could save money to care for themselves. This was the social movement of the era, the equivalent of a social safety net. So many working class populations were encouraged to invest their meager wages in a Savings and Loan Bank for their own retirement. These were not commercial institutions. They were supposed to be protected places to keep your money, and no great interest was expected to be earned on the monies held within, but you would at least get back what you invested. Banks that functioned as investments in loaning money to the community were different institutions.
The Freedman's Savings and Loan Bank was started and ruined by white men. Frederick Douglas was brought in only in the final years, after the bank was failing due to illegal mismanagement by the white leaders. Largely so he could be the public face of the failure. He took the job in an attempt to prevent the collapse of the bank, and in the event of a collapse, he hoped to be able to help the Black Community recover what assets it could.
The long and short of it is that formerly enslaved Black folks had more wealth than white folks expected. They trusted the system and invested "over $ 75 million ($ 1.9 trillion today)." The long and short of it is white people illegally stole the money and caused the bank to fail through their racist and illegal business practices. They stole millions from formerly enslaved peoples and mostly used the money so they and their friends could profit. When the bank was opened to giving out loans, Black folks who had used the bank to hold their money weren't eligible to borrow or take out a loan. So our own wealth wasn't even allowed to be used to grow our own community. After the white folks had stolen all they could, they placed Frederick Douglas in charge so the bank would be a visible failure of Black folks to perform in the financial sector. The government refused to even distribute the millions left in the bank when it failed to those who made deposits so they could recover any of their investments. The government failed to uphold its own laws and hold the white bank managers accountable for their theft.
It's so deeply shocking it honestly makes the case for Reparations all on its own. It's frustrating because victims of the Holocaust are allowed to fight for what was stolen from their families during WW2. Yet the exact same justice is denied Black Americans even when the issue is clear-cut thievery with an easy to trace record. I felt like this after learning about the Osage Murders dramatized in the movie Killers of the Flower Moon. The white folks who currently own this land are the direct descendants of those who murdered to steal it. How come they don't get their land back, at least? There's no reparations when white folks violate People of Color, only when white folks violate other white folks.
This is excellently researched and extremely interesting. There's a lot of history that isn't in the regular history books. The only good to come of this is that when the stock market crashed in 1929, Black folks didn't have much money in the system to lose. The long arm of this is brutal as far as impact today.
Thank you to Justene Hill Edwards, W. W. Norton & Company, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ebook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Jonathan Kozol, Brilliance Audio, and NetGalley.
This is an important and sobering This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Jonathan Kozol, Brilliance Audio, and NetGalley.
This is an important and sobering look at the long term measurable impact of segregation, both formal & informal, in the United States school system on marginalized communities. This looks specifically at Black and brown urban communities, created out of a toxic combination of white flight and red lining which barred POC from the suburban enclaves created to placate white folks fleeing integration laws. He calls out the extreme hypocrisy of blaming Black and brown folks for the impacts on their communities created by the melding of white supremacist and white nationalist housing and schooling policies. This is short, common sense and extremely accessible.
The narrator of this audiobook is JD Jackson. JD was an excellent narrator. This us nonfiction which can be dry but this is extremely accessible. The narration is dynamic and helps to hold the interest of the reader.
Thank you to Jonathan Kozol, Brilliance Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own. ...more
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Claudette Colvin, Phillip Hoose, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
This audiobook is This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Claudette Colvin, Phillip Hoose, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley.
This audiobook is narrated by Soneela Nankani. This is a high quality audio production featuring a calming light musical soundtrack. Ms. Nankani has a soft and cultured voice perfect for this narration.
This is a very important story and is directly about racism and segregation. This is sensitively handled, perfect for grade school age children. This is about Claudette Colvin who was a civil rights activist during the Civil Rights Movement starting in the 50's when she was 15. She refused to give up her bus seat for a white women in Montgomery, Alabama. This gives a kid friendly overview of the case that ended bus segregation in Alabama. Also briefly touches on how that case impacted the national changes that ended segregation nationwide.
Thank you to Claudette Colvin, Phillip Hoose, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own....more
This book pretends that virginity is a 'gender' rather than a social construct which seems to belittle actual transgender people who existed in this tThis book pretends that virginity is a 'gender' rather than a social construct which seems to belittle actual transgender people who existed in this time as in every time. Gender is also a social construct but not in the same way; virginity was used in this instance, like costuming. Elizabeth I wasn't a virgin, she cloaked herself in 'virginity' biblical style to rule over a misogynistic and patriarchal Court. Much like Henry VIII wasn't actually a man of deep faith with a troubled conscience much less a protestant. No, he cloaked himself in faith to manipulate the Court for his many divorces and remarriages. Certainly Elizabeth I's manipulation of 'virginity' is ingenious where Henry was just a murdering pig. None the less I don't understand why not a thorough exploration of virginity and how this is mythologized in the form of the virgin Mary. A 'virgin' who gets pregnant and gives birth. Which is impossible as is the entire bullshit idea that a penis being inserted in a vagina changes anything. For either party. The lowest point for me is the author's disregard of blatant racism which occurs more than 100 yrs after the chattel slave trade has started. Ignore that the pope and europe have deemed black skin to equal enslaved person. No this wasn't ingrained in law, that won't be for a further 70 years but the concept existed. The author admits both that the concept exists and that she has been warned this can't be removed from it's colonial context. Yet the author proceeds to do just that. Here's the thing racism against black skin is still a thing. The idea that black skin is 'dirty' and can be 'cleaned' is still alive and active today. Not long ago a Chinese commercial with just this plot was broadcast and may still be broadcast. England and it's colonialism is responsible for the concept that 'white' people exist and legislated them into existence. To ignore this to pretend that being black is like being a foreigner is wildly inaccurate and disrespectful. This book is supposed to be a feminist look at these issues. Feminism has to address racism, even when it's uncomfortable and inconvenient. To fail to do so is to engage in racism which is what this author ultimately does. White feminism devalues to feminist movement as a whole.
Merged review:
This book pretends that virginity is a 'gender' rather than a social construct which seems to belittle actual transgender people who existed in this time as in every time. Gender is also a social construct but not in the same way; virginity was used in this instance, like costuming. Elizabeth I wasn't a virgin, she cloaked herself in 'virginity' biblical style to rule over a misogynistic and patriarchal Court. Much like Henry VIII wasn't actually a man of deep faith with a troubled conscience much less a protestant. No, he cloaked himself in faith to manipulate the Court for his many divorces and remarriages. Certainly Elizabeth I's manipulation of 'virginity' is ingenious where Henry was just a murdering pig. None the less I don't understand why not a thorough exploration of virginity and how this is mythologized in the form of the virgin Mary. A 'virgin' who gets pregnant and gives birth. Which is impossible as is the entire bullshit idea that a penis being inserted in a vagina changes anything. For either party. The lowest point for me is the author's disregard of blatant racism which occurs more than 100 yrs after the chattel slave trade has started. Ignore that the pope and europe have deemed black skin to equal enslaved person. No this wasn't ingrained in law, that won't be for a further 70 years but the concept existed. The author admits both that the concept exists and that she has been warned this can't be removed from it's colonial context. Yet the author proceeds to do just that. Here's the thing racism against black skin is still a thing. The idea that black skin is 'dirty' and can be 'cleaned' is still alive and active today. Not long ago a Chinese commercial with just this plot was broadcast and may still be broadcast. England and it's colonialism is responsible for the concept that 'white' people exist and legislated them into existence. To ignore this to pretend that being black is like being a foreigner is wildly inaccurate and disrespectful. This book is supposed to be a feminist look at these issues. Feminism has to address racism, even when it's uncomfortable and inconvenient. To fail to do so is to engage in racism which is what this author ultimately does. White feminism devalues to feminist movement as a whole....more
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