Mini-Reviews: Disturbing Reads

It is amazing what Kearse knew from family stories about her family history and even more startling what she learned from her research. A terrific alternate history and memoir.

I borrowed the book from my public library.

The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President's Black Family
by Bettye Kearse
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published March 24th 2020  
ISBN132860439X (ISBN13: 9781328604392)

from the publisher

For thousands of years, West African griots (men) and griottes (women) have recited the stories of their people. Without this tradition Bettye Kearse would not have known that she is a descendant of President James Madison and his slave, and half-sister, Coreen. In 1990, Bettye became the eighth-generation griotte for her family. Their credo—“Always remember—you’re a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president”—was intended to be a source of pride, but for her, it echoed with abuses of slavery, including rape and incest. 

Confronting those abuses, Bettye embarked on a journey of discovery—of her ancestors, the nation, and herself. She learned that wherever African slaves walked, recorded history silenced their voices and buried their footsteps: beside a slave-holding fortress in Ghana; below a federal building in New York City; and under a brick walkway at James Madison’s Virginia plantation. When Bettye tried to confirm the information her ancestors had passed down, she encountered obstacles at every turn. 

Part personal quest, part testimony, part historical correction, The Other Madisons is the saga of an extraordinary American family told by a griotte in search of the whole story.

I had read Things We Lost in the Fire and quickly requested this new book. I was unsettled by the early stories, then became squeamish and finally had to walk away. The horror was too much for me. That being said, I will admit that the writing is amazing.

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories
by Mariana Enriquez
Random House Publishing Group - Random House
Hogarth
Pub Date 12 Jan 2021 
ISBN 9780593134078
PRICE $27.00 (USD)

from the publisher

Following the "propulsive and mesmerizing" (New York Times Book Review) Things We Lost in the Fire comes a new collection of singularly unsettling stories, by an Argentine author who has earned comparisons to Shirley Jackson and Jorge Luis Borges.

Mariana Enriquez has been critically lauded for her unconventional and sociopolitical stories of the macabre. Populated by unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women, they walk the uneasy line between urban realism and horror. The stories in her new collection are as terrifying as they are socially conscious, and press into being the unspoken—fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history—with bracing urgency. A woman is sexually obsessed with the human heart; a lost, rotting baby crawls out of a backyard and into a bedroom; a pair of teenage girls can’t let go of their idol; an entire neighborhood is cursed to death when it fails to respond correctly to a moral dilemma.

Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, and with a resounding tenderness toward those in pain, in fear, and in limbo, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is Mariana Enriquez at her most sophisticated, and most chilling.

An American Quilt: The Hidden History Behind an 1830s Quilt

Rachel May, an Assistant Professor at Northern Michigan University, was shown an 1830s hexagon quilt top with backing papers that revealed a glimpse into its history. In ornate handwriting were the dates 1798 and 1813 and the words rum, casks, West Indies, shuger.

Fascinated by this quilt, May, a quiltmaker and author of Quilting with a Modern Slant, researched the quilt's heritage and historical background. It took her on a six-year journey deep into a history we have conveniently forgotten, the economic roots of New England wealth based on the slave trade and slave labor.

Family letters and genealogical research helped May create an understanding of the Crouch-Williams-Cushman family behind the quilt, raising questions about racism throughout American history.

The makers of the quilt top were Susan McPherson Sibley Williams (1813-1902), whose mother rented a room to Brown University medical student Hasell Wilkinson Crouch (1809-1836). Susan married Hasell and they moved to Hasell's native Charleston, South Carolina. The couple worked on the hexagons together. One hundred years later, Susan's grandnephew Franklin discovered the top. He created a notebook with sample fabrics, some noted as "probably for slave gowns," and transcribed the family letters.

friendship sloop schooner invest fame dear sister maintained Havana Barbados barrels seaman Carolyna Newport government incident kindness 

Hexagon pieces, mostly19th c reproduction fabrics, which I used in my Charles Dickens quilt

Susan's two brothers went South to begin their careers. One brother became committed to the Confederate cause, defending the economic advantage, and luxurious life, based on an enslaved labor force. Wasn't the North an abolitionist mecca? How could Susan not have seen the human suffering behind the "servants" who cared for her family's needs? How did a Rhode Island family, transplanted to the South, so readily adapt to the role of slave owners?

What shocked May was the realization that the North was complicit with slavery.

I remembered the song Molasses to Run to Slaves from the musical 1776 which we had seen performed live in Philadelphia during the Bicentennial. It was my first understanding of the Triangular Trade.

Who sails the ships out of Guinea
Ladened with bibles and slaves?
'Tis Boston can boast to the West Indies coast
Jamaica, we brung what ye craves
Antigua, Barbados, we brung bibles and slaves!
Molasses to rum to slaves
Who sail the ships back to Boston
Ladened with gold, see it gleam
Whose fortunes are made in the triangle trade
Hail slavery, the New England dream

With the names of the enslaved women--Minerva, Eliza, Jane, and Juba--and references in letters and historical documents, May imagines their lives. She traveled across the country to understand the world they lived in, visiting historic sites and forgotten places. It was an emotional journey, soul-wracking. Throughout the book, she mixes a deep understanding of American history with her research to construct fictionalized stories of the woman's probable lives.

In the end, May concludes that we each must decide how to live in a country built on genocide, enslavement, land theft, and racism. She urges us to consider how we participate in injustice today. What stories should we be telling? What choices should we make to not support modern businesses built on enslaved labor and modern indentured servants working in horrific conditions? How do we respond to human trafficking today?

An American Quilt is more than the story of a quilt or genealogy research on a family or even a recreation of the lives of enslaved persons. May questions the foundations of our heritage, the misconceptions we hold and challenges us to reevaluate how we today participate in supporting unjust economic systems.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and Slavery
by Rachel May
Pegasus Books
Publication Date: May 1, 2018
Hardcover $27.95 USD
ISBN 9781681774176, 1681774178

Hexagon quilt, late 19th c, owned by Diane Little

Abe Lincoln and Joshua Speed Star in Perish From the Earth

When I saw that Doris Kearns Goodwin enjoyed Jonathan F. Putman's first Lincoln and Speed mystery novel, I decided to request the second in the series, Perish From the Earth. The idea of a mystery involving circuit court lawyer Abe Lincoln and his bunkmate Joshua Speed intrigued me.

The action takes place in St. Louis in 1837, at a time when Abolitionists were considered radical lawbreakers.


Joshua Speed, our narrator, accepts slavery although he is disturbed by scenes of abuse. Abe supports it as constitutional but hopes that it will be phased out over time.

1837 saw the inauguration of Martin Van Buren and the Panic of 1837, a financial crisis. Oberlin College became the first in the nation to accept female students. (Michigan also became a state!)

Speed is on the War Princess, a Mississippi paddleboat owned by his father, investigating why it has not been a profitable venture. While he is on board, a man goes missing and his body is afterward found by Speed and Lincoln. A rival in love, the artist George Bingham, is accused of his murder and Lincoln agrees to represent him in court.

As Speed and his intrepid sister Martha investigate, the reader learns about American society at the time: slavery, plantation life, abolition, the newfangled justice and prison system, and life on a paddleboat.

Events and persons are based in history. A mob murders an abolitionist newspaperman, based on the real Elijah Lovejoy. Other characters drawn from history include the gambler Devon, George Bingham, and persons in the legal system. Likewise taken from history is the prison in Alton. Robert E. Lee shows up, managing a project for the War Department's Engineering Corps.

Lincoln had a deep commitment to the law and an abhorrence of mob rule. We see Lincoln as a trial lawyer, employing his gift of storytelling and turning his failures into successes.

I liked the characters and enjoyed the vivid descriptions that brought the historical time period to life. Everything felt probable and in keeping with what we know of Lincoln. This was an enjoyable read.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Jonathan F. Putnam is a writer and attorney. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he is a nationally renowned trial lawyer and avid amateur Lincoln scholar. He currently lives with his family in London, England. This is his second Lincoln and Speed mystery following These Honored Dead.

Perish from the Earth: A Lincoln and Speed Mystery
Jonathan F. Putnam
Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: July 11, 2017
$25.99 hardcover
ISBN: 9781683311393

In His Own Words, John Quincy Adams on Slavery

John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery, Selections from the Diary by David Waldstreicher and Matthew Mason traces Adams' evolving understanding of slavery, drawing from Adams diary.

After serving as president Adams' home state of Massachusetts elected him to the House of Representatives. Adams remained in the House until his death. Adams never shirked the call to serve his country. He was a diplomat, Senator, Secretary of State, and President. Adams literately died on the floor of the House.

Adams, like his parents, believed slaves must be freed, but how that was to be accomplished, and the intensity of his personal commitment to ending slavery, evolved over his lifetime. It was not until late in his life that he took up the cause in earnest, battling a government controlled by the South and the Gag Rule that banned any petition for abolition to be presented in the House.

The book consists of diary extracts with commentary from the authors providing a framework to understand their context.

The issue of slavery was problematic since the inception of America. Removing Jefferson's clause on slavery from the Constitution may have allowed the States to unite, but the "United States" only came after the Civil War and the adoption of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. Adams' career was spanned these two pivotal events.

The diary reveals both his aversion to slavery and his aversion to pressing the issue. He believed that the Abolitionists demand was too radical. He agonized that the divide over slavery would bring an end to the American experiment through war; he thought that the disbanding of the country and reforming under a new Constitution a better option. Slaves were property, and the Constitution defended personal property--a huge stumbling block. The flaw, he felt, was in the Constitution itself.

How would the slave owners be compensated? And what did the country do with the freedmen? He discredited the idea of buying up land in Africa and deporting all people of color back to their 'homeland.' Did America want to have colonies, after it had rejected being a colony? And he felt it was wrong to deport free blacks who were citizens of this country. (Although many wanted to get rid of freedmen, they were such a problem.)

Adams fought against allowing new slave states without a balance of non-slave states and contended against Britain's desire to search American ships for contraband slaves as allowing foreign countries legal authority over Americans.

The Electoral College was established to balance power between the populous Northern industrial states and the rural South with its large slave population. During Adams tenure in the House, the South, and slave owners, was in control of government.

It was impressed on me how the issues Adams grappled with have never been really solved in America. We still have racism and prejudice, our country still is threatened to be torn apart over sectional, regional and class differences. I hope to God that a Gag Rule is never again enacted against free speech.

Adams was in his upper seventies and still working day and night, praying for self control, searching to understand how to bridge the gap between Constitutional law and God's will for the freedom of the enslaved. I felt his pain, his anguish, and the burden of the legacy of behind being an Adams--a man appointed by God, his parents, and his own self imposed high standards to make a mark in history. He knew he would not live to see the end of slavery, but like John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness, believed he was preparing the road for the work of those who would come after him.

The Introduction was wonderful, and I was excited to get reading. It took me some time to get used to the book's format and to get a feel for Adams' style. For a while I wasn't sure I would finish the book. But as events precipitated during the 2016 election I felt the subject's relevance and was motivated to finish the book. So very glad I did not give up. I commend the authors for the huge undertaking of tackling Adams' massive diary to pull together this narrative that illumines Adams, his time, and an important part of American history.

Read John Quincy Adams diary at http://www.masshist.org/jqadiaries/php/

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery
by David Waldstreicher and Matthew Mason
Oxford University Press
Publication Dec. 1, 2016
$29.95 hard cover
ISBN: 9780199947959

*****

If you follow my blog you know I have a special interest in John Quincy Adams. My education on American presidents started with my reading over a dozen books on the presidents while making The President's Quilt.

Louise Catherine Adams
Remember the Ladies
by Nancy A Bekofske

I read more books on their wives while designing and creating Remember the Ladies, my Redwork quilt on the First Ladies. I was very interested in learning more about Louisa Catherine Adams, John Quincy's wife, and jumped at the change to read and review her biography The Other Mrs. Adams by Margery M. Heffron, which I reviewed here.

And as I was finishing Heffron's book I accepted the challenge of making a John Quincy quilt for The Presidents Quilt project organized by Sue Reich. As I designed the quilt I read another half dozen books on Adams! My John Quincy Adams and Remember the Ladies quilts appears in Reich's book Presidential and Patriotic Quilts and it has been touring the country for over a year now! Read about the book at http://ow.ly/6LtZ306lP1u.

John Quincy Adams by Nancy A Bekofske

Read my review of The Remarkable Life of John Quincy Adams at http://ow.ly/qqzW306lONb
Read about JQA push for the Smithsonian Institute in my review of The Stranger and the Statesman at http://ow.ly/7wgd306lOTg
Read about the annexation of Texas and the Gag Rule in America 1844 at http://ow.ly/xXdF306lP7H

"What's important is the past": Absalom's Daughters by Suzanne Feldman

In the Jim Crow South of the 1950s two girls find their reflection in each other's faces. Although one is black and one white they share the same father-- 'skirt-chasing, adulteratin' white trash'--who has abandoned both families. A rumor comes to town that their father is to inherit a legacy, and being 'progeny' the girls are encouraged to find their father and demand their inheritance.

Sixteen-year-old Judith is white, uneducated, and devastatingly poor. What she possesses is a beautiful talent for singing. Hearing the Negro music aired from New York City--only at night due to its scandalous sexuality--Judith longs to go to New York and become a famous singer.

Cassie, fifteen and cinnamon in color, lives with her grandmother and mother, a hardworking laundress. Grandmother determined that her daughter--and plans for her granddaughter--to take white lovers with the expectation of diluting their African blood until they can pass as white. Cassie's mother hopes to spare her daughter this indignation, encouraging her to follow Judith's quest for the father and leave town.

The story of the girls' road trip across the south is delightful reading, episodic with wonderful characters and twists and memorable characters.

Early in the story Cassie meets Ovid Beale who tells her that mules 'useter be colored folk'; it is easier for colored folk to turn into a mule because they are 'already half one thing and half another.' And it is this theme of passing between two worlds, the legacy of slavery making colored folks black but not black, appearing white while being deemed legally black, that informs the story.

On their travels each sister acts out different roles according to the expectations of the audience and what they need to do to survive. Cassie acts the black servant to Judith, then tries passing as white, learning about herself and deciding on her future. Cassie learns that what is important is the past, to never forget her roots.

It took time for me to get hooked to the story, then it picked up considerably. The characters are interesting and Feldman has an original take on the timeless theme of race and identity in America.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Absalom's Daughters
by Suzanne Feldman
Henry Holt & Co,
Publication July 5, 2016
$26 hard cover
ISBN: 9781627794534

Caleb: A Novel by Charles Alverson: Rise from Slave to Union Hero

Bostonian indentured servant Caleb has been sold into slavery. Boyd Jardine buys Caleb on a whim, later discovering that Caleb is more than strong--he is educated and intelligent. Jardine grooms Caleb for tasks befitting his skills, and eventually Caleb is running the plantation. In the evenings he cozily reads the newspaper to his Master.

 Jardine treats him well, even providing a "wife". The likelihood of escape is small with bounty hunters combing the countryside for runaways. But Caleb wants freedom badly. Master Jardine proposes a win-win situation: Caleb will go into boxing and keep his winnings, while Master Jardine places bets to win more money--which he will split 50-50 with Caleb. This way Caleb can buy his freedom.

Life after freedom offers limited opportunities for an educated free black man. War has broken out, and Caleb finds himself in the Union army.

I read this book in two sittings. The writing keeps the reader's interest and the later half is action-packed. Reader reviews are generally positive.

Caleb feels like a mythic or legendary character, or a character from a Graphic Novel. As historical fiction this book has little realism. This slave world is just too comfortable. Master Jardine is a trusting and enabling master and Caleb is a veritable Frederick Douglas clone. This is a tidied up version of the "peculiar institution" that brought about the United State's most important crisis. There is no surprise to the ending.

The book a lot of action, and good characterization. The worst violence is in the boxing matches, and there is no graphic sex scenes. Overall, it was a good read, but not impressive literature.

Caleb by Charles Alverson
Lake Union Publishing
ISBN-13: 9781477826232; ISBN-10: 1477826238
Publication date:

Charles Alverson is a prolific writer who was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Rolling Stone magazine and who wrote the screenplays for Jabberwocky and Brazil.