Slaves in the Family

Rating:
Summary: It meanders, but it's really interesting
Review: Although I will agree with other reviewers that this book wandered all over the place and got really confusing, it was still really worth reading. I've never seen anything like it.

A white person whose family was hip-deep (maybe neck-deep) in slave trade who decides to address the issue has a lot of courage. I also am white and although my family is not responsible for slavery, we are accountable, because white people in this nation continue to profit from it.

And I find that willingness to be accountable almost nowhere. So my hat is off to Edward Ball for being so honest and saying, here is what happened and what my family did.

It surprised me to see how much the slaves' descendants knew of their own families, generations back. I thought that black people had little idea of the details of their family's slave pasts, either because of the traumas of the life they led or because they put it behind them when it ended.

What I especially liked about the book was that Ball didn't preach. He just said what happened. He let the racist members of his family say their piece. He let the slaves' descendants, also his family, have their anger or their distance or their un-PC attachments to the plantation life.

Ultimately the reader gets to take all of this information in and form an opinion. Even though it meanders, I still recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: important book for all americans
Review: Edward Ball has done a remarkable thing: the story of his family is a story of this nation's history. To contest other readers' criticisims. i must say that his attention to each individual (naming slaves and their relationships, particular labors, etc) humanizes a group that has been too often presented faceless, en masse. And through conversations with descendants of slaves and slaveowners (however distant) the reader is shown and forced to consider the very real connection between the hundreds of years of slavery and the present, to realize how close we are still to those years, and to acknowledge how very much those hundreds of years continue to infect this culture. Whatever your race or regional placement, this book is important reading for all americans

Rating:
Summary: Could have been 1/4 of the length it is.
Review: I have suffered through about half of this book. The author gets way too bogged down recounting the stories of people that he has happened to find along the way that bear only the most distant relationship to the history he tries to capture. In many instances, the stories are merely filler bearing no relationship to the matter at hand. In most instances, the people interviewed are so many generations removed and their knowledge so sketchy that they are irrelevant. If you have a serious interest in this area, look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Political Correctness learned at Brown???
Review: I eagerly picked up Slaves in the Family hoping for a good read about a topic that has had little written about it. The organization of the book was so poor that one had to continually look at the family tree(s) in the back of the book to keep track of everyone. I was especially disgusted with Ball's harassment of his present day family, families of the ex-slaves and the families of former slave traders in Africa. The liberal concept that we are somehow responsible for the actions of our ancestors is ludicrous.

Rating:
Summary: This is indeed a well researched book and i highly recommend
Review: Slaves in the family is actually a very well researched book.I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the slave trade and it's after effects.It actually traces one family's involvement in the humiliating,denigrating and retrogressive practise.It also goes the extra length to seek out the descendants of the slaves,indeed it does not stop there but still traces them back to their homelands in Africa and also discusses with the descendants of the African slave traders.It is an open secret that no community can be enslaved without the collision of members of the community.This book is indeed an eye-opener

Rating:
Summary: interesting, desperately in need of editing
Review: Extremely sloppy editing detracts from what could have been an excellent book. The author is way too interested in superfluous detail -- the descriptions of people and scenery were not necessary and distracting. Although the subject matter was provocative and there is much to admire in the project, the book was ultimately a rather tedious read.

Rating:
Summary: A true journey of discovery for Mr. Ball and all involved.
Review: Mr. Ball's courage to take the time to research his family's involvement in the slave trade and slavery says it all. He took the time to research his family's dealing and went a step further. He wanted to see what happened to the former Ball slaves and their families. His journey did just that. He was able to find African American members of his family, which I'm sure he knew existed. He was able to help several African American families connect their family histories. I was touched by the book and the care with which he approached each subject in the book: children in slavery, black and white relationships, mulatto children, women's roles in slavery, and acknowledging the slave revolts that occurred and almost occurred. I can't wait for his next book concerning his mother's side of the family!

Rating:
Summary: Brings history alive
Review: Since the book focuses on the effect that slavery, the Civil War, and the period after the war had on individuals, it brings history alive. The historical facts I learned throughout my school years now have color. Ball addresses many serious issues, including the Africans who sold their tribesmen and the treatment of mulattos. The book is a little difficult to follow because it jumps around in time and the pictures do not correspond to the text. In addition, the chapters often repeat facts mentioned earlier in the book. Although this jogs the memory, it feels as though the book were a collection of essays. However, despite these structural weaknesses, the story is fascinating and, without stereotyping, effectively presents the perspectives of those involved with slavery and their descendants. I think the book should be required reading for all high school students.

Rating:
Summary: did he ever meet a fact he didn't like?
Review: Picked up this book with eagerness, but have been so disappointed I can barely get through... Desperately earnest and well-intentioned, fascinating family info, yes. But Ball can't resist regaling us with every fact he ever knew, just to show off his prodigious research ("Philadelphia was founded in 1682") and his much-praised interviews with the slaves' descendants are composed mainly of "business" (they look at the floor, they smile, they take a breath), descriptions of people's eyes (melting, warming, they sound kind of like pancakes), and such profound explanations for slavery as "Because people are cruel." (Oh, that explains it.) How this ever got the National Book award is beyond me -- the judges must have been so snowed by the "honesty" of a book about slave-owning they couldn't admit to themselves that even honesty can be badly written, trite, and boring.

Rating:
Summary: I think,maybe,I might have had slaves in my family, could be
Review: I was a history major in college and MY professors made me substantiate every premise I made. This book had great promise but fell short of non-fiction. I feel we need books on this subject but this book falls short, filled with conjecture and supposition. I hope the next attempt in this arena has more substance and FACT. By the way, I am not from the South but from Missouri and this book is an insult to all people who publish research.