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Search - Slaves in the Family
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Slaves in the Family Author: |
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Book Information
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Other Versions of this Book: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Hardcover
Book Description:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"[A] LANDMARK BOOK."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"POWERFUL."
--The New York Times Book Review
"GRIPPING."
--The Boston Sunday Globe
"BRILLIANT."
--The New Yorker
"EVERYONE SHOULD READ AND LEARN FROM THIS LUMINOUS BOOK...Like Alex Haley's Roots, through which African American history came into national focus...Slaves in the Family has the potential for creating a perceptual shift in the American mind...The book is not only honest in its scrupulous reporting but also personal narrative at its finest."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"BALL IS A FIRST-RATE SCHOLAR-JOURNALIST...He's also a good detective, tracking down the many descendants of Ball slaves from New York to California and back in the South and coaxing them, often with some difficulty, to tell their stories...Outside Faulkner, it will be hard to find a more poignant, powerful account of a white man struggling with his and his nation's past."
--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"A MASTERPIECE...REMARKABLE...It is a work about slaves in the family. But it is also a large omnium gatherum of enchanting fireside anecdotes, secrets teased out of reluctant fragments from the remote past, the real lives of blacks and whites whose stories had been lost in the disintegrating churn of time until Edward Ball's patient reconstructions."
--The Raleigh News & Observer
"A TOUR DE FORCE...The heart of this remarkable book consists of his sleuthing--tracking down and interviewing the descendants of former Ball slaves across the country... Part oral history, this unique family saga is a catharsis and a searching inventory of racially divided American society."
--Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed review)
"A PAGEANTRY OF PASSIONS AND STRUGGLES."
--African Sun Times
"[A] LANDMARK BOOK."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"POWERFUL."
--The New York Times Book Review
"GRIPPING."
--The Boston Sunday Globe
"BRILLIANT."
--The New Yorker
"EVERYONE SHOULD READ AND LEARN FROM THIS LUMINOUS BOOK...Like Alex Haley's Roots, through which African American history came into national focus...Slaves in the Family has the potential for creating a perceptual shift in the American mind...The book is not only honest in its scrupulous reporting but also personal narrative at its finest."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"BALL IS A FIRST-RATE SCHOLAR-JOURNALIST...He's also a good detective, tracking down the many descendants of Ball slaves from New York to California and back in the South and coaxing them, often with some difficulty, to tell their stories...Outside Faulkner, it will be hard to find a more poignant, powerful account of a white man struggling with his and his nation's past."
--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"A MASTERPIECE...REMARKABLE...It is a work about slaves in the family. But it is also a large omnium gatherum of enchanting fireside anecdotes, secrets teased out of reluctant fragments from the remote past, the real lives of blacks and whites whose stories had been lost in the disintegrating churn of time until Edward Ball's patient reconstructions."
--The Raleigh News & Observer
"A TOUR DE FORCE...The heart of this remarkable book consists of his sleuthing--tracking down and interviewing the descendants of former Ball slaves across the country... Part oral history, this unique family saga is a catharsis and a searching inventory of racially divided American society."
--Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed review)
"A PAGEANTRY OF PASSIONS AND STRUGGLES."
--African Sun Times
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Top Member Book Reviews
Lorelie L. (
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
Writer Edward Ball opens Slaves in the Family with an anecdote: "My father had a little joke that made light of our legacy as a family that had once owned slaves. 'There are five things we don't talk about in the Ball family,' he would say. 'Religion, sex, death, money and the Negroes.'" Ball himself seemed happy enough to avoid these touchy issues until an invitation to a family reunion in South Carolina piqued his interest in his family's extensive plantation and slave-holding past. He realized that he had a very clear idea of who his white ancestors were--their names, who their children and children's children were, even portraits and photographs--but he had only a murky vision of the black people who supported their livelihood and were such an intimate part of their daily lives; he knew neither their names nor what happened to them and their descendents after they were freed following the Civil War. So he embarked on a journey to uncover the history of the Balls and the black families with whom their lives were inextricably intertwined, as well as the less tangible resonance of slavery in both sets of families. From plantation records, interviews with descendents of both the Balls and their slaves, and travels to Africa and the American South, Ball has constructed a story of the riches and squalor, violence and insurrection--the pride and shame--that make up the history and legacy of slavery in America.
ANNA S. (
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
The author, a descendant of one of the largest slave-owning families, confronts his past by researching archives and connecting with the descendants of the slaves. He tells a compelling story of black and white families,who lived side by side for five generations. The author attempts (and does an excellent job!) to explain why the slave legacy is still enmeshed in this country today. Reading this book gave me a greater understanding of our American history and human nature.
48 pages of historic and current photographs.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Winner of the National Book Award, this is an absolutely fascinating non-fiction read about the search for relatives who turn out to have been slaves.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
A history of one man's family who tracked down and interviewed the descendants of former family slaves across the country.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Thorough, thought-provoking and compelling story about appearance versus reality. Though I read it when it first came out I remember the honesty of the author. I kept wondering how those on both sides of the family would respond to the public knowing what happened. Would there be shame? Humiliation? Denial? Would the truth set them free? Would reconciliation come about for others beside the author? Of course, this is the pink elephant that no one wants to talk about in the south in particular.
I hope the author will one day choose to enlighten us where this journey took him in life.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Most interesting...great research by the author.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Winner of the National Book Award. Part oral history, this unique family saga is a catharsis and a searching inventory of racially divided American society.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I was unable to get into this book.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Powerful...A book that is an amazing amalgamation of history, detective work, sociology and personal catharsis. It covers not only the days of slavery, but investigates the intertwined lives of blacks and whites into the 20th century.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Interesting although overly long.
Please Rate these Book Reviews
LYNN K. (Though I thought I would really enjoy this book, I did not. It was hard to get into. I finally just looked at the photo section and gave up on reading it. It's written by a man who traced his ancestry, to include slaves who were related and slaves of the family. I did not expect it to be as boring as it was.
so much history - a real eye opener - very informative
"BALL is a first-rate scholar-journalist . . . He's also a good detective, tracking down the many descendants of Ball slaves from New York to California and back in the South and coaxing them, often with some difficulty, to tell their stories . . . Outside Faulkner, it will be hard to find a more poignant, powerful account of a white man struggling with his and his nation's past." THE ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION
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