Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism
|
Not currently available
From Slave to Statesman - The Life of Educator, Editor, and Civil Rights Activist Willis M. Carter of Virginia (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R858
Discovery Miles 8 580
|
|
From Slave to Statesman - The Life of Educator, Editor, and Civil Rights Activist Willis M. Carter of Virginia (Hardcover)
Series: Antislavery, Abolition, and the Atlantic World
Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available.
|
In the 1980s, Willis McGlascoe Carter's handwritten memoir turned
up unexpectedly in the hands of a midwestern antiques dealer. Its
twenty-two pages told a fascinating story of a man born into
slavery in Virginia who, at the onset of freedom, gained an
education, became a teacher, started a family, and edited a
newspaper. Even his life as a slave seemed exceptional: he
described how his owners treated him and his family with respect,
and he learned to read and write. Tucked into its back pages, the
memoir included a handwritten tribute to Carter, written by his
fellow teachers upon his death. Robert Heinrich and Deborah
Harding's From Slave to Statesman tells the extraordinary story of
Willis M. Carter's life. Using Carter's brief memoir--one of the
few extant narratives penned by a former slave--as a starting
point, Heinrich and Harding fill in the abundant gaps in his life,
providing unique insight into many of the most important events and
transformations in this period of southern history. Carter was born
a slave in 1852. Upon gaining freedom after the Civil War, Carter,
like many former slaves, traveled in search of employment and
education. He journeyed as far as Rhode Island and then moved to
Washington, DC, where he attended night school before entering and
graduating from Wayland Seminary. He continued on to Staunton,
Virginia, where he became a teacher and principal in the city's
African American schools, the editor of the Staunton Tribune, a
leader in community and state civil rights organisations, and an
activist in the Republican Party. Carter served as an alternate
delegate to the 1896 Republican National Convention, and later he
helped lead the battle against Virginia's new state constitution,
which white supremacists sought to use as a means to disenfranchise
blacks. As part of that campaign, Carter traveled to Richmond to
address delegates at the constitutional convention, serving as
chairman of a committee that advocated voting rights and equal
public education for African Americans. Although Carter did not
live to see Virginia adopt its new Jim Crow constitution, he died
knowing that he had done all in his power to stop it. From Slave to
Statesman fittingly resurrects Carter's all-but-forgotten story,
adding immeasurably to our understanding of the journey that he and
men like him took out of slavery into a world of incredible promise
and powerful disappointment.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.