Slaves in the Family

Slaves in the Family is a biographical historical account written by Edward Ball that was published in 1998.

Synopsis

This book is an account of the author's family origins, dating back to when they first arrived in America. It also outlines the lineage of the slaves long ago owned by his ancestors. Ball follows the stories of these people over many years as the families dispersed. Over time, the family earned the reputation as "the most prominent of South Carolina plantation owners." The author explores genealogy and history, via interviewing descendants from both groups. Stories from the black families are intense and varied, practically lacking in any kind of bitterness. The book depicts his family as being not the cruelest of slave owners.

Awards and Reviews

• "A compelling saga, Ball's biographical history of his family stands as a microcosm of the evolution of American racial relations..." - Carol DeAngelo (Garcia Consulting Inc.)
• "This resulting microcosm of America's original sin of slavery is an innovative package of historical narrative and oral history and even modern reconciliation." - Gilbert Taylor (Booklist)
• "A journalist's exhaustively researched, intensely personal quest confronts the legacy of slavery connecting his South Carolina family and the people they enslaved." - Kirkus Reviews
• "Powerful" - The New York Times Book Review
• "Gripping" - The Boston Globe
• "Brilliant" - The New Yorker
• "A landmark book" - San Francisco Chronicle
• “Outside Faulkner, it will be hard to find a more poignant, powerful account of a white man struggling with his and his nation’s past.” - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• “A masterpiece...It is a work about slaves in the family. But it is also a large omnium-gatherum of enchanting fireside anecdotes, secrets teased out of reluctant fragments from the remote past, the real lives of blacks and whites whose stories had been lost in the disintegrating churn of time until Edward Ball's patient reconstructions.” - The Raleigh News & Observer
• "Fascinating Reading. There is simply nothing quite like it in print." - Boston Sunday Globe
• "If Cold Mountain was closer to a nature study than a Civil War story, this book is the real thing: a narrative with runaway slaves, night patrols, plantation lords, wastrel heirs, and a loony widow...A fascinating domestic history." - The Cleveland Plain Dealer
• ""Not since William Faulkner wrote his masterpiece Absalom, Absalom! in 1936 has any writer rendered a more hauntingly poignant exploration of the dark roots and bitter fruits of slavery in America."" - The Baltimore Sun
• "Moving and Disarmingly Frank" - The Christian Science Monitor
• ""Powerful...Edward Ball is a writer who possesses both skill and bravery...A book that is an amazing amalgamation of history, detective work, sociology and personal catharsis. It covers not only the days of slavery, but investigates the intertwined lives of blacks and whites into the 20th century. Ball's history is impeccable...Slaves in the Family deserves wide readership. It is a fine portrait of how the legacy of an evil institution still resonates in the collective memories of black and white Americans." - The Chattanooga Times
• ""Fascinating...Ball is an accomplished portrait artist, delivering characters in quick, pointed strokes. His ear is perfect also, able to discern a Southern accent that is more cotton than rice. Most importantly, Slaves in the Family accomplishes something that the currently fashionable but little-yielding 'dialogues' on race cannot seem to; it underscores the complexity of blood and manners as an aspect of race in this country." - New York Post
• ""An exposé of the original black/white divide in this country, as embodied in one extended family and the people they owned...By daring to zero in on his own family's trade, Ball breaks hundreds of years of silence from white people." - The Village Voice
• "A fascinating and important work that should be read by as many Americans as possible." - The Washington Times
• ""[An] unblinking history not only of his ancestors but also of the people they held as slaves...It reminds us of our common humanity and of the ties that still bind us, no matter what the wounds of the past." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
• "Sensitive and Formidable...The historical sections utterly rivet." - Newsday
• Winner of the National Book Award (1998)^[1]
• Ambassador Book Award for American Studies (1999)
• New York Times bestseller
• Featured on Oprah
• Translated into several languages

Other books by this author

• The Sweet Hell Inside: The Rise of an Elite Black Family in the South
• Peninsula of Lies: A True Story of Mysterious Birth and Taboo Love
• The Genetic Strand: Exploring a Family History Through DNA
• The Inventor and the Tycoon: A Gilded Age Murder and the Birth of Moving Pictures

References

External links

• PBS
• Macmillan