From Slave to Statesman: The Life of Educator, Editor, and Civil Rights Activist Willis M. Carter of Virginia (Antislavery, Abolition, and the Atlantic World)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.93 (809 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0807162655 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 162 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-02-22 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Scholarly yet fascinating and readable. Such an interesting story but presented in a thorough and scholarly manner. I especially liked that the entire diary is included at the end, so one can read it for oneself. This is a nuanced telling of actual events without the overlay of our own contemporary judgments. We tend to bring our own "20/20 hindsight" to descriptions of this era, but the book lets us see things through the eyes . Great read! One of the more venerated ideas in American life is that upward mobility for individuals flows from education and hard work. Significantly, and understandably, scholars of African-American life have tended to emphasize the ways in which the array of legal, economic and social factors undergirding white supremacy limited opportunities for most black southerners to significantly improve thei. national development that help citizens of this country better understand and process its turbulent and complex past Amazon Customer "From Slave to Statesman. The Life of Educator, Editor and Civil Rights Activist Willis M. Carter of Virginia" is an important addition to the study of slavery, African Americans and the history of the United States in general. The research of Heinrich and Harding adds depth and context to this slim, yet remarkable memoir. They successfully present Carter's inspiring personal journey in a
He is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic and the author of over a dozen books.Robert Heinrich is Assistant Editor of the American National Biography project for the American Council of Learned Societies and Oxford University Press as well as a non-resident fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University..
is Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. About the AuthorDeborah Harding is an art and antiques research specialist, the former editor for several national magazines, and the author of four books on American folk art.Henry Louis Gates, Jr. He is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic and the author of over a dozen books.Robert Heinrich is Assistant Editor of the American National Biography project for the American Council of Learned Societies and Oxford University Press as well as a non-resident fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African
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. 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. 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. 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. In the 1980s, Willis McGlascoe Carter’s handwritten memoir turned up unexpectedly in the hands of a midwestern antiques dealer. 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. He journeyed as far as Rhode Island and then moved to Washington, DC