4 comments about The Outer Banks of North Carolina, 1584-1958.

1. This is the premier history of the Outer Banks area, written by the region's premier historian. It begins in the 16th Century, when European explorers first touched the sandy barrier islands. It carefully traces the course of human and environmental events through the modern era, with special emphasis on the Revolutionary War and Civil War. This is a truly remarkable piece of work that will enlighten anyone interested in Carolina history.



2. To discover the unique beauty and history of the Outer Banks, David Stick is THE author to read. His lovely blend of history and legend, written in great style, is the perfect book to learn about the lighthouses, people (and horses!) of the Banks.



3. We recently took a vacation to the 'Banks, and bought this book because we were simply fascinated by the history of the area. It offers a very nice comprehensive history by someone who has lived in the area for many years. Excellent for the vacationer or casual visitor, it covers all the "hot spots" I wanted more information on, like the Roanoke settlement, Revolutionary War, Civil War, lighthouses, horses, shifting inlets and in general how tourism got started. Offers enough detail to whet your appetite without bogging you down with unnecessary details. My only beef is that the book was published in 1958 and a lot has happened in the last 50 years. This oversight on my part was overshadowed by the fact that it's actually entertaining to catch references to the area before "commercialization" really set in or before the Bonner bridge was built (oddly, the author refers to a bridge over the inlet as "inevitable"). Highly recommended for anyone with the Banks on their "to do" list. Just be smarter than I was and read this before you go, because we'd have gotten much more out of our trip if I had known all the history first!



4. New paperback reprint of a book originally published in 1958, with no editorial updates, works as both a history of the Outer Banks, and as a piece of history itself. The 50 years since Stick's original writing have seen the realization of the Outer Banks real estate boom that Stick witnessed birthing, but have also seen the passing away and obliteration of much of the old Outer Banks culture that spoke of piracy, fishing, and the sea.
   
   Overall, Stick does a good job telling about the history of the Banks, although his chapters on the wars, revolutionary and civil, tend to recitations of people and place names and do drag a bit. The virtually unnavigable Outer Banks were not a geographical key to the outcome of the Civil War, unlike the superhighway Mississippi River, and were quickly won back by the Federal invading troops, including some early experience with marine invasion. In fact, as Stick points out, many Bankers quickly swore loyalty to the Union and elected a representative; sent to Washington, Congress debated the merits of seating the rump legislator, but declined on the grounds that a few voters on nearly deserted coastal islands could hardly speak for a state the size of North Carolina which was otherwise seceded.
   
   Stick provides a brief synopsis of the Wright Brother's time in Kitty Hawk, covered in greater depth in other books, but his tales of whaling villages built and deserted (see the chapter on Diamond City), of pirates plundering and captured, and of islands open and alive make the book worth reading as both history and time piece. I was reminded again that while the Outer Banks have been blamed for blocking navigation and coastal port development that has limited the population and economic growth of the state, they have also contributed a physical beauty, isolation, and majesty that is worth more, both economically and aesthetically, than any "progress."

5 comments about Aunt Arie: A Foxfire Portrait.

1. From the cover:, " The students, none of whom had ever been to Aunt Arie's before, were awed, drawn inexorably into the little circle of activity that surrounded this 5' 6" dynamo who laughed and pecked on each of them and tapped their shoulders and grasped their knees and tried to remember their names and loved them, instantly, and without reservation-strangers all". This book is wonder full, and heart full, and shines a little light into a way of being that is fast becoming a just catchy phrase on a hall mark card.



2. WHAT A GREAT "AMERICANA" STYLE BOOK, FANTASTIC ADDITION TO A FOXFIRE COLLECTION OR GREAT ON ITS OWN. AUNT ARIE HERSELF, HER OWN STYLE FROM COOKING TO HARVESTING, THOGUHTS, RELIGION AND HER FEELINGS ABOUT LIVING ALONE! SHE WAS AN HONORABLE WOMAN!



3. terrific read - inspirational - one tough and lovable character who will be missed for many years to come



4. I recently purchased 'Aunt Arie: A Foxfire Portrait,' along with two Foxfire guides, to assist me in establishing an Appalachian setting (and characters)for a story I am working on. I've only skimmed the guides at this point, but I haven't put "Aunt Arie" down! I've still got a couple of chapters left to read, but so far the story of this woman's life, as told by her to the folks at Foxfire, has proven indispensable to my research.
   
   The editors of the book have attempted, most successfully (they offer an explanation of ways and means at the beginning of the book)I think, to reproduce/preserve Aunt Arie's dialect and colloquialisms, as transcribed from the hundreds of hours of taped interviews. In this book, HOW she says things is just as important as WHAT she's saying...and what does she say? Where do I begin? Besides offering a virtual treasure-trove of information on the subjects of gardening, healing, economy, and food storage and preparation, she also delves into stories of her friends and neighbors, living and dead, speaks often of her life with her beloved husband, and before that her childhood, and all her talk of the people she's known, whether she loved them or could have done without them, is tinged with her faith, her basic love of and respect for humanity, and her simply ideology: you get what you give.
   
   If any of the above appeals to you, get this book. You won't regret it. I'm back here b/c I'm about to get one for my grandmother. Just thought I'd leave a more complete review than the ones I'd seen.



5. Reading this book was like stepping back in time, to my childhood. My greatgrandmother was about the same age as Aunt Arie, and lived a very similar life. I come from a good stock of Appalachian people, living in Sevier and Cock Counties. Her speech pattern, and dialect were true to the way "we used to talk." The explaination from the author as to how they tried to spell out the way of speech was very nearly perfect.
   
   I could not put the book down. It took me back to many a day, at my grandmothers house in Sevierville Tn. Listening to the old ladies talk and tell stories of what it was like living in the mountains, when they were young women. How the men folk behaved. If a person was 'good to you' or not, declared his or her character. The medicinal herb/weed lore, the cooking in a fireplace and later on, a woodstove. The water well and the out house. The garden tending, animal managing, church going, activities that filled Aunt Arie's life so full.
   
   They could have been sisters. It touched me deep in my mountain girl heart and will be a book that I use for my own grandchildren some day, to relate to them, what it was like to grow up in the mountains, how hard it must have been, the simple pleasures cold spring water, a baked sweet potatoe and a pot of soup beans could bring. The greatful attitude and loving heart of Aunt Arie. She belongs to me now, a little bit. She has made me stand on the end of the porch and watch my own loved ones as they leave and keep watching until I can no longer hear or see them as my own beloved Grandmother did each and everytime we left her home. Thank you Aunt Arie! Like the students in the FoxFire program - I will not forget you.

3 comments about A New Voyage to Carolina.

1. Young John Lawson describes his adventure canoing and hiking through the Carolina Coastal Plain and Piedmont in the winter of 1700. Lawson's descriptions are detailed, especially of the many generous Native Americans who helped him on his way. His journey started in Charleston, continued through the Charlotte area, then east to Okeneechee Village on the Eno River (now Hillsborogh) and on to the coast near New Bern. This book is an unknown classic.



2. Being born and rasied in South Carolina, I thought it a very interesting read. I know a lot of the places he is referring too.
   
   Ray



3. John Lawson is my immigrant ancestor, and a legend in my family, and yet I was 52 years old before I knew this book was still in print. I was thrilled to find out, and gave it to my siblings and cousins for Christmas. Reading the book was an amazing experience to me, because I felt I was reading it from the inside out. I understand John Lawson so well, and he gave me the gift of understanding myself better.
   
   For people who don't have a personal stake in the story, it's still an amazing read. Lawson was an excellent writer, a keen observer and his sensibilities are such that he was able to see all that was admirable about the native Americans without losing sight of all that was horrific. He was a victim of that paradox, as he was burned alive by the people he so admired.
   
   He is known as one of the nation's first humorists, I learned, and in my own generation I see his dry wit. It's also interesting to me that in my generation, there are two professional writers and one humor columnist, and we all recognized our own voices in his.
   
   He was a man who left a very comfortable life in London to come and trek through North Carolina before it existed. He chose to begin his trip at the end of December -- a fact that I find astounding -- and he describes life-threatening incidents as if they were minor inconveniences. The courage and love of adventure that define his spirit shine through on every page. Regardless of my lack of objectivity, he was a remarkable man; he wrote a remarkable book.

1 comments about Many Excellent People: Power and Privilege in North Carolina, 1850-1900 (Fred W Morrison Series in Southern Studies).

1. Escott has written a well-research, scholarly study of how ordinary people in North Carolina, white and black, interacted with the political and social institutions of the day. This is an important social history worth the time of anyone interested in Southern history after the Civil War. Escott focuses in particular on five counties but his study is more broad-based than this indictes. He uses statistics but the human story predominates.

4 comments about A Golden Haze of Memory: The Making of Historic Charleston.

1. Stephanie Yuhl's book is a great read for historians and layman alike. I loved it. As a native Carolinian(North), adopted Charlestonian, historian, and community college instructor, I found the book fascinating. The research and conclusions are thorough and thoughtful. I have used it as a reference for my own research on memory and cultural association. The sources and notes are extensive. Yuhl's book, as any good history, creates new questions for debate. Those people who consider themselves versed in the history of the city should read it and have an opinion. This book is "about Charleston" and "FOR Charleston". But it is also for the rest of us who visit and study the city, and care about its special place in the history of the South.



2. Stephanie Yuhl's book on the "making" of historic Charleston, South Carolina during the 1920s and 1930s -- the era of "Porgy and Bess" -- is fascinating. Yuhl deconstructs the mythmaking that artfully ignored some of the city's less heroic features and transmuted them into a placid, controversy-free image of a way of life at once locked in the past but also looking forward.



3. When you visit Charleston for the first time you are impressed and at times overcome by the sheer beauty of the place. The charismatic churches, cobblestone streets, and preserved homes seem almost movie set like in their ability to transport you to another time. Stephanie Yuhl's book very adeptly explores the phenomenon that is Charleston. This capitol of the south has been able to preserve itself like many European cities have done for centuries. An effort that is largely ignored in most other American urban areas. I wish I had "Golden Haze of Memory" when I first went to Charleston, as it explores how and why this Southern Belle of a city has sought urban renewal through preservation of a romanticized past.



4. Stephanie Yuhl's study of Charleston is a great read, organized brilliantly with metaphors from theatre, and wonderfully well written. As a newcomer to Charleston but a long time South Carolinian, I was fascinated by her account of how Charleston has marketed itself. Her analysis of the literature of the Charleston Renaissance is extremely insightful as is her critique of Charleston's most well known painters. But perhaps most astute is her analysis of class and race relations. This book is definitely a prize winner!
   Carolyn Matalene
   Distinguished Professor Emerita
   University of South Carolina

No comments about North Carolina Through Four Centuries.

4 comments about Red Hills and Cotton: An Upcountry Memory (Southern Classics Series).

1. An English professor I had in college once berated me at a poker game for recommending this book. He had never heard of it. I gave him a copy. I can only imagine the sardonic moment in which he finally picked it up. He loved it. The book was given to me by a Capitol Hill policeman from North Carolina. This is the sort of book that will help Yankee's (like me)to understand the Old South; a truly liberal and enlightened view. This is one of those books, whose author was struck down early in life, that makes you wonder what might have come from his pen had he lived. These are memoirs, memoirs of the old folks that made up the backbone of the South after the Civil War up to the Great Depression, real, living people whom, thorough these pages, become a delight to get acquainted with.



2. My first contact with "Red Hills and Cotton" was in 1973; I was 4 years old, and my mother had been given the book as a birthday present by my aunt. When I was old enough, I read the book for myself. Ben Robertson is buried in my hometown, and I recognized much of the geography of which he writes. I also recognize much of the human spirit about which he writes - the spirit of the Southern small farmer.

   Although many of the circumstances of the South have changed since this writing (in the early 1940s), the nature of the people has not changed to a great extent. We may not work the fields each day, but our love of God, family, homeland, adventure, loyalty -- all these things remain close to our hearts and lives. Ben Robertson would still have reason to be proud. Would that he had lived longer and written more!




3. From a member of the next generation with recollections and experiences of a similar nature, I can assure you that this book gives a highly accurate account of what it was like growing up in the rural South. The next best book of this nature, and one similar to it is "Run With the Horsemen", by Ferol Sams. Although "Run With the Horsemen" is classed as a novel, it accurately portrays life in the rural South during the Great Depression. Please don't miss reading either of these great books concerning events that occured at a special time and in a very special place.



4. This is one of my all time favorites. Being raised on a cotton farm in Texas in the depression, I can relate to it entirely. It showed me the close relationship of all southern people and the common heritage even though our farms were a 1,000 miles apart. Many of Ben's relatives were just like mine. And cotton was King. It was the main topic of conversation all year.

4 comments about Ribbon of Sand: The Amazing Convergence of the Ocean and the Outer Banks (Chapel Hill Book).

1. I picked this book up during a recent week's stay on Topsail Island (one of the southernmost of the Outer Banks). Having never read a book on natural history or the ecology, I was prepared for the paper-pulp equivalent of Sominex.

   Never have I been more wrong in my preconceptions about a book. Ribbon of Sand captures PERFECTLY the true mystique of North Carolina's Outer Banks -- how a half-mile wide band of barrier islands survive both because of nature . . . and in spite of it. Each segment of the book ties together both human and natural history. How the wind the shapes the wonderfully high dunes near Kill Devil provided the Wright Brothers with the means to test their gliders and to develop the first airplane. How shifting tides and currents that continue to shape the Outer Banks both abetted . . . and spelled doom for Blackbeard the Pirate.

   In short, Ribbon of Sand captured my imagination and instilled in me a greater appreciation for the fragile balance of nature and man on the Outer Banks. I very highly reccomend this book!




2. I purchased this book to learn more about the Outer Banks, which I have long wished to visit and where we will spend a week this summer. It is an amazingly interesting and informative book. Geology, geography, biology, weather, ecology, politics, and more are all discussed as is the importance of each in relation to the others. I found the book engrossing and would recommend it even if you are not going to this unique area of the world. Now when the kids ask me why there is a forest in the dunes I will be able to tell them and I will be much better able to appreciate the beauty of the place.



3. Anyone who has visited the Outer Banks -- and many who have only seen them from the famous 1970-era Apollo space shot -- knows that the islands are unique, fragile, and someday going to be overrun, either by trashy tourism or, eventually, nature. Alexander and Lazell hope, but are hardly convinced, that nature will get the chance to run its long course. Beyond the fascinating subject, the authors' chapter by chapter analysis of the forces that compete on the Banks -- sand, wind, land, forest -- is a clarifying approach to writing about the science of the Banks. In separate chapters, Alexander and Lazell then effectively show how the forces combined to impact Blackbeard's last battle and the Wright Brothers efforts to fly. The final chapter, Convergences, is like reading a decade-early preview of the impact on the islands of Hurricane Isabel. I would call Alexander and Lazell prescient, but I suspect they themselves would be the first to admit they were simply documenting the inevitable future. Only problem with this excellent book is that the writing feels as if it was done either in turn or by compromise, and is often far less compelling than its subject matter. Still, Ribbon of Sand offers some science, some entertainment, and a whole lot of appreciation for this wonderful speck of the world.



4. ........of history, science, poetry and politics. I can't think of an existing category that this book properly belongs to; perhaps the literature of place, if I create one for it. I don't know of another book that so accurately and beautifully gives a true sense of a real place in all of its complexity.
   
   And what a place! A unique treasure that has somehow been substantially preserved while it continues to evolve according to contemporary usage. Not without struggle and controversy, of course. Don't just read the book, go there and experience it in your own way.
   
   Using some kind of specific guide book for planning is probably a good idea: I thought "North Carolina Beaches" by Glenn Morris (Chapel Hill) was useful and pleasant.

No comments about North Carolina: Change and Tradition in a Southern State.

5 comments about Slaves in the Family.

1. By tracing the heritage of several slave decendants' back to the mid 1600s from New York to California, Ball has fulfilled something so profound for those families, almost no words can describe it. Most African Americans in this country are resigned to the fact that we'll never know who our great, great, grandparents were, where in Africa our ancestors once lived. This book will be hard to put down.



2. 
   Great reading. This is an important and interesting historical as well as family history book. This account of the slave trade, and South Carolina's pivotal role in it, is riveting.



3. When talking about America's original sin, it is inevitable that the discussion gets very complicated, very quickly. The historical fact of slavery and its implications are simply too much to wrap one's head around, and it's not unreasonable to ask whether there's anything else to learn and apply about the experience or whether it's just best to let sleeping dogs lie. Edward Ball's book is acutely aware of the question, and it doesn't completely come to a perfectly-formed conclusion on the matter, either. The book links the story of his white family with his attempts to investigate and connect with the descendants of the slaves whose names had earlier been unknown to his family, and whose voices had been unheard by history. The results are often electrifying, as Ball tries to wrestle the pencil away from the winners, as it were, and write another draft of history, despite some misgivings from the older members of his own family.
   
   Slaves in the Family feels more like reportage than narrative nonfiction, and Ball's effort is scrupulously balanced and seeks less to advance an argument than to merely explore the lasting effects of slavery on the descendants of that terrible institution. His interactions with those descendants--easily the best parts of the book--hit many notes, and they illustrate that, if nothing else, the ways in which blacks and whites have dealt with the knowledge of slavery are quite varied. The people who Ball interviews operate on a variety of different worldviews and assumptions--some, for example, think that things haven't really improved for blacks since civil rights and that the battle is hopeless, while others take the contrary view that the improvement has been incalculable--but nearly all are united in a desire to know more, to learn more, and to try to understand what happened. People who read this book looking for what "The Line" is these days when it comes to slavery and race relations are going to be disappointed, as the book seems to conclusively say that such things don't exist, that individuals have dealt with slavery's cruel inheritance by personalizing it in differing, idiosyncratic ways, and that to say that "black folks" or "white folks" feel a specific way about this history is simply not possible. There are, of course, constants that run through the discussions--guilt, anger, denial, sure, but also acceptance and a surprising amount of forgiveness--that present a difficult, nuanced, and rewarding trip through several centuries' worth of history.
   
   Truth be told, the book does drag just a little bit at parts, but I appreciated what Ball tries to do here. The book feels incomplete at times, but that's perhaps inevitable as it is the nature of the subject under analysis. What Ball does is to try to shine some light onto a broad subject, and he finds quite a bit of interest that's hidden in the darkness. The result might not be dazzling new thoughts on our racial inheritance, so much as a new way of thinking about that inheritance, one that disregards myth and pat sloganeering and that credits conversation and knowledge. It's a good message, and one that should be heard.



4. This is the second time I've read this book and I was as pleased with it this time as the first time. This is the story of the author's research into his family's past as slave owners and slave traders. Through painstaking research and wonderful storytelling Ball tracks down his ancestors, both white and black, and tells the story of slavery in this country from the point of view of one prominent family.
   
   We often think of slavery in terms of the Civil War. It's all Gone With The Wind and Mammy and Bette Davis in Jezebel sitting on the porch in hoop skirts listening to the slaves sing spirituals. These are all part of the story, but only part. The wonderful thing about this book is that this story starts with the arrival of the first Ball ancestor in the Americas in Charlestown (later Charleston) in the 1600's and follows the family up into the American Revolution and beyond. One of the Ball daughters was married to Henry Laurens, a delegate to the Second Continental Congress who succeeded John Adams as President of that body. He was also co-owner of a slave trading firm that was responsible for the sale of over 8,000 Africans during his lifetime.
   
   The American Revolution was a boon for many slaves who were able to escape their masters to the British side. A number of people were taken back to Britain where they were given their freedom and some were taken to Nova Scotia to start over - it was people from the Canadian group that founded Sierra Leone and one of them was a former Ball slave.
   
   The book takes us into the present day and brings together many disparate stories as the author struggles to come to terms with his family history and what it means to him. Along the way he meets many relatives he didn't know he had and is able to help some of these people piece together family trees as they trace their genealogy back through the records to their original slave ancestor.
   
   This is not a perfect book and I can understand why some members of the author's family would have preferred he left well enough alone, but I am glad he didn't. It is imperative that we all understand our history, acknowledge where we came from, and find the connections between us. They are closer than we think.



5. This is an interesting book. The author is from South Carolina, and though his own upbringing was middle-class (his dad was a clergyman) his family had in the past been quite wealthy, and owned a considerable number of slaves. We're talking thousands of people here, between the various plantations they owned, and the length of time involved. One of the plantations was only sold out of the family 15 years ago.
   
   So Mr. Ball, who has a journalism degree and writes a newspaper column for the Village Voice, decides to see if he can track down his relatives, and also the descendants of the slaves his family owned. As he works his way through various families in the book, he recounts the history of the Ball family, starting with the patriarch and working his way forward to the Civil War. This event, plus the advent of a female known in the family lore as "Buzzard Wing", impoverished most of the family. Ball also discusses the instances when he feels one of the slave-owners had children with their slaves, and what happened to the offspring of these liaisons.
   
   The whole thing is very interesting, from the all-white Charleston men's club he visits in one chapter to the various families of black people he visits and talks with. The author has a relatively intelligent sense of the history of the subject, and if I think he perhaps attaches too much importance to what his family did, relative to black people, well I suppose I'm not him. At one point he says he bears no responsibility for what happened, but there has to be justice, or something to that effect. It's an interesting concept.
   
   Slavery is a touchy subject in this country, still, and the author should be commended for taking it on. Of course when he does so, not everyone will agree with him. It's the way things are. Good book, though.