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Climbing Jacob's Ladder traces the history of the black family from
its roots in Africa, through slavery, Reconstruction, the
Depression, and the civil rights movement, to the present, arguing
that black families cannot be measured against white norms. This
groundbreaking, provocative work dispels some of the most common
myths, misconceptions, misunderstandings, and misinformation about
African American families. Climbing Jacob's Ladder takes a fresh
look at the evolution of Black families, describes the forces that
have shaped them, and examines their resiliency in the face of
difficult conditions, and the strengths that help them endure.
A sociological approach to appreciating the heroism and legacy of
the Gullah statesman.On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls (1839-1915)
commandeered a Confederate warship, the Planter, from Charleston
harbor and piloted the vessel to cheering seamen of the Union
blockade, thus securing his place in the annals of Civil War
heroics. Slave, pilot, businessman, statesman, U.S.
congressman—Smalls played many roles en route to becoming an
American icon, but none of his accomplishments was a solo effort.
Sociologist Andrew Billingsley offers the first biography of Smalls
to assess the influence of his families—black and white, past and
present—on his life and enduring legend. In so doing, Billingsley
creates a compelling mosaic of evolving black-white social
relations in the American South as exemplified by this famous
figure and his descendants. Born a slave in Beaufort, South
Carolina, Robert Smalls was raised with his master's family and
grew up amid an odd balance of privilege and bondage which
instilled in him an understanding of and desire for freedom,
culminating in his daring bid for freedom in 1862. Smalls served
with distinction in the Union forces at the helm of the Planter
and, after the war, he returned to Beaufort to buy the home of his
former masters—a house that remained at the center of the Smalls
family for a century. A founder of the South Carolina Republican
Party, Smalls was elected to the state house of representatives,
the state senate, and five times to the United States Congress.
Throughout the trials and triumphs of his military and public
service, he was surrounded by growing family of supporters.
Billingsley illustrates how this support system, coupled with
Smalls's dogged resilience, empowered him for success. Writing of
subsequent generations of the Smalls family, Billingsley delineates
the evolving patterns of opportunity, challenge, and change that
have been the hallmarks of the African American experience thanks
to the selfless investments in freedom and family made by Robert
Smalls of South Carolina.
Throughout the history of the African American people there has been no stronger resource for overcoming adversity than the black church. From their role in leading a group of free Blacks to form a colony in Sierra Leone in the 1790s to helping ex-slaves after the Civil War, and from playing major roles in the Civil Rights Movement to offering community outreach programs in American cities today, black churches have been the focal point of social change in thier communities. Based on extensive research over several years, Mighty Like A River is the first comprehensive account of how black churches have helped shape American society.
Geneva Cobb Moore deftly combines literature, history, criticism,
and theory in Maternal Metaphors of Power in African American
Women's Literature by offering insight into the historical black
experience from slavery to freedom as depicted in the literature of
nine female writers across several centuries. Moore traces black
women writers' creation of feminine and maternal metaphors of power
in literature from the colonial era work of Phillis Wheatley to the
postmodern work of Paule Marshall, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison.
Through their characters Moore shows how these writers re-create
the identity of black women and challenge existing rules shaping
their subordinate status and behavior. Drawing on feminist,
psychoanalytic, and other social science theory, Moore examines the
maternal iconography and counter-hegemonic narratives by which
these writers responded to oppressive conventions of race, gender,
and authority. Moore grounds her account in studies of Phillis
Wheatley, Harriet Jacobs, Charlotte Forten Grimke, Jessie Fauset,
Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston. All these authors, she
contends, wrote against invisibility and powerlessness by
developing and cultivating a personal voice and an individual story
of vulnerability, nurturing capacity, and agency that confounded
prevailing notions of race and gender and called into question
moral reform. In these nine writers' construction of feminine
images-real and symbolic-Moore finds a shared sense of the
historically significant role of black women in the liberation
struggle during slavery, the Jim Crow period, and beyond.
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Catan
(16)
R1,150
R887
Discovery Miles 8 870
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