Rating: 
Summary: The Hairston's in Black and White
Review: I am the niece and greatniece to two relatives in the book from pages 120. Jean is my aunt and Bay is my great aunt. For many years, our grandmother, Laura Hairston Cunningham Crenshaw told the stories of how powerful her family was. She always said she was black. Being very young at the time, I couldn't really understand why she kept saying that because she didn't look Black. This family history is fulled with the curses and blessings that come from years of sinful living and righteous living. My siblings and I visited our grandmother in Mississippi several times in our youth. My sister read the book and she was in tears, an older brother read the book and he became angry. I choose to accept the past for what it is. I have lived with my father who has direct knowledge of that family going back several generations, yet, he never discusses his life as a youth growing up in the heart of the South as a Hairston. His two brothers are now deceased but they left children behind. We have family members in Chicago and St. Louis as well as Mississippi.I can only tell you that wealth extracts a price of its own. So does being poor. My father loved his mother and his maternal grandfather. He came away from Mississippi having learned about the character of a man and how to measure it. He loved his children (and there are many of us). He loved his brothers and his sister. We may never know the depths of his hurt and we may never understand if the hurt is the result of being a Hairston or the product of a so-called bi-racial marriage. What our family knows is that the past owes us nothing. The stories that are told about this side of the family don't matter. We were loved by them and they loved us. God brought the family through those times and continues to smile on us today. Every family has a story to tell. The Bible is filled with stories of the lives of those who passed on many years ago. Our destiny is to learn from those who have passed on. Each of us shoulders a responsibility to achieve whatever is good and right in God's sight. No more and no less.
Rating:
Summary: What a surprise!
Review: I personally thought this book was wonderful! It could not have been more vividly illustrated by Wiencek. I am a native of Lexington, NC and my great great grandfather is pictured in this book, Righteous Hairston. From what I have been told he was a ferryman. Having attended "Hairston Clans Reunion" when I was younger, I am intrigued to know that there is a book written about my family! It tells a story of days long gone and how a family has thrown away racial barriers and how they decided to come together as one!
Rating:
Summary: What a surprise!
Review: I personally thought this book was wonderful! It could not have been more vividly illustrated by Wiencek. I am a native of Lexington, NC and my great great grandfather is pictured in this book, Righteous Hairston. From what I have been told he was a ferryman. Having attended "Hairston Clans Reunion" when I was younger, I am intrigued to know that there is a book written about my family! It tells a story of days long gone and how a family has thrown away racial barriers and how they decided to come together as one!
Rating:
Summary: Best Non Fiction book you could ever read
Review: I picked up this book in Dallas,TX and realized that I lived 45 minutes away from where it took place, I wanted to get in my car and drive there (don't do that, it is still private property) It is a wonderful book, I could not put it down. It is not preachy or boring, it is not filled with words but visual pictures woven into fascinating family tapestries. It tells the story of two families, one white, and one black (owned as slaves), It talks about the days of slavery to now. Where the families are today and the relationship they share in the present. It was one of the most amazing books I have ever read. I can't believe I never heard of it before now. The mark of a good book for me is when I do have to put it down I find myself thinking about it, I found this happened a great deal with this volume, run to get it, it is one of the best books I have ever read (and I read alot :D)
Rating:
Summary: A step in the right direction for race relations!
Review: Okay, I haven't read the whole book but I looked at the family tree, read the first 53 pages and " A Gathering in Ohio" because my family is inextricablely linked to this book. This offers me a foundation from which to launch a search into my family's past. I have been searching for this book and these people for about two years now and it is most of what I need to know. This book should be required reading along side any text of American history to cure a high degree of presumption.
Rating:
Summary: One family's history through slavery to the present
Review: Subtitled, "An American Family in Black and White", this is a true story of a Southern family that spans the years from 1790 to the present day. The author, Henry Wiencek, is a northern journalist who specializes in old homes. One day, when visiting an historic plantation in Virginia, the owner piqued the author's interest by telling him anecdotes and showing him historical records. The author was fascinated and started doing research and interviewing the surviving members of the family, including the descendents of the slaves who had also taken the last name of Hairston, many of whom were related by blood. This is not only the story of one particular family. It is the story of America itself and the awful institution of slavery. The white family members look back on it with anguish and never make any apology for it. Historically though, there are letters and documents in which they try to justify it. For example, at the beginning of the 19th Century one young white plantation owner visited England and wrote a letter about appalling conditions of the factory workers in London who lived in squalor compared to his well-treated slaves in Virginia. During the 19th Century, most of the whites merely accepted the situation with the exception of one plantation owner in Mississippi. When he died, he left his entire plantation to his daughter who was born to a slave woman. Such a thing was unheard of at the time. The case was delayed in the courts for years while the daughter and her mother were quickly sold. The writer did a lot of research and finally traced the daughter, who wound up with a very interesting life of her own, even though she remained a slave. Some of the stories of the Civil War were fascinating, especially the role of the former slaves who became soldiers in the Union Army. In one particular battle in Mississippi, they fought so bravely that their Illinois white fellow soldiers risked their own lives to save them. In another documented incident with northern soldiers, a white man was disciplined harshly for disrespecting one of the black men. This kind of respect changed however. The Buffalo Soldiers of WW2 were treated badly. It was hard to read about how they were sent into battle by incompetent leaders. The author interviewed one of these Buffalo Soldiers who was still alive and some of his stories are fascinating. Another one of the living black descendents is Jester Hairston, who acted in the movie "The Alamo" with John Wayne. He now is one of the most respected historians of slave music and travels around the country continuing his research and giving lectures. Many of the former slaves settled near the Virginia plantation and opened businesses and sent their children to college. Basically, they've done much better than the white plantation owners who just sold off one parcel of land after another until it was practically all gone. The black Hairstons have a long-standing annual family reunion and the author joined them on several occasions. Eventually, they all visited the still-standing plantation and met the white owner, who was honest in his understanding of what a horrible institution slavery was. Eventually, they have made peace between them. I loved this book. It had great stories. Wonderful authentic history. And a fine theme about forgiveness. I also felt I met some great people along the way. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The Hairston's in Black and White
Review: Subtitled, "An American Family in Black and White", this is a true story of a Southern family that spans the years from 1790 to the present day. The author, Henry Wiencek, is a northern journalist who specializes in old homes. One day, when visiting an historic plantation in Virginia, the owner piqued the author's interest by telling him anecdotes and showing him historical records. The author was fascinated and started doing research and interviewing the surviving members of the family, including the descendents of the slaves who had also taken the last name of Hairston, many of whom were related by blood. This is not only the story of one particular family. It is the story of America itself and the awful institution of slavery. The white family members look back on it with anguish and never make any apology for it. Historically though, there are letters and documents in which they try to justify it. For example, at the beginning of the 19th Century one young white plantation owner visited England and wrote a letter about appalling conditions of the factory workers in London who lived in squalor compared to his well-treated slaves in Virginia. During the 19th Century, most of the whites merely accepted the situation with the exception of one plantation owner in Mississippi. When he died, he left his entire plantation to his daughter who was born to a slave woman. Such a thing was unheard of at the time. The case was delayed in the courts for years while the daughter and her mother were quickly sold. The writer did a lot of research and finally traced the daughter, who wound up with a very interesting life of her own, even though she remained a slave. Some of the stories of the Civil War were fascinating, especially the role of the former slaves who became soldiers in the Union Army. In one particular battle in Mississippi, they fought so bravely that their Illinois white fellow soldiers risked their own lives to save them. In another documented incident with northern soldiers, a white man was disciplined harshly for disrespecting one of the black men. This kind of respect changed however. The Buffalo Soldiers of WW2 were treated badly. It was hard to read about how they were sent into battle by incompetent leaders. The author interviewed one of these Buffalo Soldiers who was still alive and some of his stories are fascinating. Another one of the living black descendents is Jester Hairston, who acted in the movie "The Alamo" with John Wayne. He now is one of the most respected historians of slave music and travels around the country continuing his research and giving lectures. Many of the former slaves settled near the Virginia plantation and opened businesses and sent their children to college. Basically, they've done much better than the white plantation owners who just sold off one parcel of land after another until it was practically all gone. The black Hairstons have a long-standing annual family reunion and the author joined them on several occasions. Eventually, they all visited the still-standing plantation and met the white owner, who was honest in his understanding of what a horrible institution slavery was. Eventually, they have made peace between them. I loved this book. It had great stories. Wonderful authentic history. And a fine theme about forgiveness. I also felt I met some great people along the way. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkable and educational
Review: The story of a northern journalist researching both the black and white sides of an antebellum Southern family makes for marvelous reading, and the individuals he discovers are each compelling in their own way. My only nit is that, consciously or not, the author "takes sides"--the black characters (from the illigitimate daughter robbed of her birthright to the African-American Civil War soldier--tend to be heroic; the whites (particularly slaveholding whites) tend to be abusive or disingenuous or merely self-serving. But for an entertaining history of an American family down the generations--on both sides of the color line--you can't do better than this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Only Passenger On A Crowded Bus
Review: This Book has a very important to me and it will always have a pecial place in my life because it is about my family. I met the author in January 1999 at the book signing. I also met some of my relatives that I had never seen. I bought two copies of the book. I gave one to my son. I am using the information to continue to trace my roots. I am a member of the Washington, DC Chapter. My life is enhanced and enriched because this book has bridged the gap for me and my relatives nationwide. The author is did an outstanding job in presenting factual information and bringing nationwide recognition to my family. He is absoutely amazing. Emma Hairston Robinson
Rating:
Summary: A stark documentation of slavery's legacy in black and white
Review: This book has had a profound impact on me, and I encourage you to read it. Wiencek has done a painstaking job of documenting the legacy of slavery on the white and African American descendants of the Hairston line. Wiencek uses court records, actual letters written by the early white Hairston planters, interviews with present-day descendants, and other texts to trace the rise and fall of the white Hairstons and unconquerable spirit of the black Hairstons. Moreover, the "protests" one sees in these reviews by some of the present-day white descendants of the Hairston planters lends even more credence to the devastating story of greed, sorrow, poverty, and ultimately, triumph painted by Wiencek's seven years of research into the Hairston families' history. Were I a white descendant, I imagine it would not be welcome to have the mythology about one's family as benevolent, caring owners who never sold their slaves exploded. (Indeed, if any African Americans may have a legal claim for reparations, surely the black Hairston family does, for Wiencek "discovers" how the white Hairston family deliberately stole the inheritance--worth millions in present-day dollars--of one of their ancestors, a mulatto child whose father, a wealthy Hairston plantation owner, left her the bulk of his estate. I won't spoil the entire story for you by saying more here. You can learn the details yourself when you buy the book.) And Wiencek does explode the myth, not through rhetoric or anecdotes but through the use of documents that, for example, show the sales of children from their families. Wiencek also provides the reader with an extensive bibliography and chapter endnotes to give authority of each claim made in the book. The only "complaint" I might have with this book--and it's no complaint--is that I often find the story within it painful to read. I'm a fast reader, yet I find I can only read this book a chapter or two at a time, or some days, depending on the passages, only a few pages at a sitting. I then have to stop and move on to some other task to try to shake off the feeling of heaviness that envelopes me. In those moments, I am sometimes struck by how far the owners would go to obtain and retain their property, and that includes their slaves. By how resentful many became after slavery's end and how they saw their former slaves' leaving of the plantation as a betrayal. By the strength and courage of the slaves themselves and their present-day descendants. By how some whites, despite the times in which they lived, had the courage to defend and assist the slaves and their descendants. America is truly a land of complexity and contradiction when it comes to the relationship between blacks and whites, and no story brings the strangeness of that relationship more to light than that of the Hairstons. Please, read this book and judge its merits for yourself. See if you find it as wonderful, as awful, as inspiring as I do.
| 
