Slaves in the Family - Hardcover

Ball, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670881066 ISBN 13: 9780670881062

Publisher: Viking, 1998

Synopsis

In this magnificent book, Edward Ball tells the story of Southern slavery through tracking the histoy of the Balls, prominent landowners and big slave owners in southern Carolina and Charleston from 1698 to emancipation - thereafter a family in dispersal and decline. In 1698 a planter named Elias Ball arrived in South Carolina from Devon, England, to claim an inheritance to one half of a plantation. By 1865, the Ball family owned over a dozen plantations along the Cooper River near Charleston. The crop was Carolina Gold - rice. By the time the Civil War ended, nearly 4,000 people had been enslaved by the Balls. Descendents of the Ball slaves may number as high as 11,000 today.

About this title

Review:

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 descendants 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 descendants 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.

Review:

"Powerful." --"The New York Times Book Review

""Gripping." --"The Boston Globe"

"Brilliant." --"The New Yorker"

"A landmark book." --"San Francisco Chronicle" "Everyone should read and learn from this luminous book...["Slaves in the Family"] is not only honest in its scrupulous reporting but also personal narrative at its finest." --"San Francisco Chronicle"

"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"" ""Much more than bare history...It's the human encounters, and the live, breathing juxtaposition of past and present, that give [Edward Ball's] book its vibrancy and importance." --"Detroit Free Press"
"A masterpiece . . . 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
"
"[An] unblinking history not only of [Edward Ball's] ancestors but also of the people they held as slaves . . . It reminds us of our common humanity and of the ties that still bind us, no matter what the wounds of the past." --"The Philadelphia Inquirer"

"Powerful." --"The New York Times Book Review
""Gripping." --"The Boston Globe"
"Brilliant." --"The New Yorker"
"A landmark book." --"San Francisco Chronicle" "Everyone should read and learn from this luminous book...["Slaves in the Family"] is not only honest in its scrupulous reporting but also personal narrative at its finest." --"San Francisco Chronicle"
"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"" ""Much more than bare history...It's the human encounters, and the live, breathing juxtaposition of past and present, that give [Edward Ball's] book its vibrancy and importance." --"Detroit Free Press"
"A masterpiece . . . 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
"
"[An] unblinking history not only of [Edward Ball's] ancestors but also of the people they held as slaves . . . It reminds us of our common humanity and of the ties that still bind us, no matter what the wounds of the past." --"The Philadelphia Inquirer"

Powerful. "The New York Times Book Review"

Gripping. "The Boston Globe"

Brilliant. "The New Yorker"

A landmark book. "San Francisco Chronicle"

Everyone should read and learn from this luminous book...["Slaves in the Family"] is not only honest in its scrupulous reporting but also personal narrative at its finest. "San Francisco Chronicle"

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"

Much more than bare history...It's the human encounters, and the live, breathing juxtaposition of past and present, that give [Edward Ball's] book its vibrancy and importance. "Detroit Free Press"

A masterpiece . . . 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"

[An] unblinking history not only of [Edward Ball's] ancestors but also of the people they held as slaves . . . It reminds us of our common humanity and of the ties that still bind us, no matter what the wounds of the past. "The Philadelphia Inquirer""

Powerful. The New York Times Book Review

Gripping. The Boston Globe

Brilliant. The New Yorker

A landmark book. San Francisco Chronicle

Everyone should read and learn from this luminous book...[Slaves in the Family] is not only honest in its scrupulous reporting but also personal narrative at its finest. San Francisco Chronicle

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

Much more than bare history...It's the human encounters, and the live, breathing juxtaposition of past and present, that give [Edward Ball's] book its vibrancy and importance. Detroit Free Press

A masterpiece . . . 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

[An] unblinking history not only of [Edward Ball's] ancestors but also of the people they held as slaves . . . It reminds us of our common humanity and of the ties that still bind us, no matter what the wounds of the past. The Philadelphia Inquirer

"

"Powerful." --The New York Times Book Review

"Gripping." --The Boston Globe

"Brilliant." --The New Yorker

"A landmark book." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Everyone should read and learn from this luminous book...[Slaves in the Family] is not only honest in its scrupulous reporting but also personal narrative at its finest." --San Francisco Chronicle

"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

"Much more than bare history...It's the human encounters, and the live, breathing juxtaposition of past and present, that give [Edward Ball's] book its vibrancy and importance." --Detroit Free Press

"A masterpiece . . . 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

"[An] unblinking history not only of [Edward Ball's] ancestors but also of the people they held as slaves . . . It reminds us of our common humanity and of the ties that still bind us, no matter what the wounds of the past." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0670881066
• ISBN 13: 9780670881062
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 560