Kerri K. Greenidge
Auteur van The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
Over de Auteur
Kerri K. Greenidge is Mellon Assistant Professor in the Department of Studies in Race. Colonialism, and Diaspora at Tufts University, where she also directs the American studies program. She lives in Massachusetts.
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The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American… door Kerri K. Greenidge
Anyone taught a reductive version of history that painted southerners, northerners, and abolitionists as monolithic cultures - needs to read this book. Greenidge is an expert storyteller who weaves together lives that were could be both valuable influences and problematic, lives that can't easily be told apart from the relatives, places and future generations they touched. I thought I knew a great deal about the Grimke family from past readings. Turns out there is a much more complex story.
Sarah and Angelina Grimke are revered figures in American history, famous for rejecting their privileged lives on a plantation in South Carolina to become firebrand activists in the North. Their antislavery pamphlets, among the most influential of the antebellum era, are still read today. Yet retellings of their epic story have long obscured their Black relatives. The author shifts the focus from the white abolitionist sisters to the Black Grimkes and deepens our understanding of the long struggle for racial and gender equality.
Sarah and Angelina’s older brother was notoriously violent and sadistic, and one of the women he owned bore him three sons. While Greenidge follows the brothers’ trials and exploits in the North, her narrative centers on the Black women of the family.
The author reclaims the Black Grimkes as complex, often conflicted individuals shadowed by their origins. Most strikingly, she indicts the white Grimke sisters for their racial paternalism. They could envision the end of slavery, but they could not imagine Black equality: when their Black nephews did not adhere to the image of the kneeling and eternally grateful slave, they were cruel and relentlessly judgmental.… (meer)
Sarah and Angelina’s older brother was notoriously violent and sadistic, and one of the women he owned bore him three sons. While Greenidge follows the brothers’ trials and exploits in the North, her narrative centers on the Black women of the family.
The author reclaims the Black Grimkes as complex, often conflicted individuals shadowed by their origins. Most strikingly, she indicts the white Grimke sisters for their racial paternalism. They could envision the end of slavery, but they could not imagine Black equality: when their Black nephews did not adhere to the image of the kneeling and eternally grateful slave, they were cruel and relentlessly judgmental.… (meer)
I feel like I was one of Greenidge's target audiences for this book, and she really got me. I will be totally honest that I ordered this based on the title referencing The Grimkes, assuming it would be a new biography of the famous abolitionist sisters, Angelina and Sarah. And it is, partially. But instead of focusing solely on the sisters, and instead of focusing on their good works as abolitionists who escaped their Southern slave-holding family, Greenidge opens up her readers eyes to a more complete picture of the larger family. She focuses on not just the famous sisters and their children, but also on their brother who abused one of his enslaved women and had three boys with her. Nancy Weston and her sons, Archie, Frank, and John are a focus of the book as the Grimke sister's Black cousins. Greenidge continues on to the next generation as well, exploring the life of Archie's only daughter, nicknamed Nana, who was a famous Black author but who also was told almost nothing of her father's life as an enslaved child. Even though she was only the first generation removed from slavery, she knew almost nothing of the trials of her father or grandmother.
Greenidge does not give anyone a pass in this book. Sarah and Angelina are called out for supporting abolition, but focusing more on the need to redeem the white slaveholder than out of true support of the Black people who were enslaved. And she points out how long it took for them to accept even "the colored elite" (as she terms them) as friends. "The colored elite" were the upper class of Black Americans - some had been freed for a long time or were never enslaved, some came out of slavery with some education and resources, most had lighter skin. "The colored elite" does not get a pass from Greenidge either, as she points out how little empathy most had for the enslaved people who had not had the benefit of any education, family, or resources.
It's a dense book with a lot of names (also a ton of Angelinas, Sarahs, and even Nanas!) so it took really close reading. And it is obviously a disturbing topic. This is one of those books though that I think is necessary reading to show that there is another telling of some famous figures of the era that, while they did a lot of good, do not deserve blind reverence.
Highly recommended when you are in the mood for something both scholarly and passionate.… (meer)
Greenidge does not give anyone a pass in this book. Sarah and Angelina are called out for supporting abolition, but focusing more on the need to redeem the white slaveholder than out of true support of the Black people who were enslaved. And she points out how long it took for them to accept even "the colored elite" (as she terms them) as friends. "The colored elite" were the upper class of Black Americans - some had been freed for a long time or were never enslaved, some came out of slavery with some education and resources, most had lighter skin. "The colored elite" does not get a pass from Greenidge either, as she points out how little empathy most had for the enslaved people who had not had the benefit of any education, family, or resources.
It's a dense book with a lot of names (also a ton of Angelinas, Sarahs, and even Nanas!) so it took really close reading. And it is obviously a disturbing topic. This is one of those books though that I think is necessary reading to show that there is another telling of some famous figures of the era that, while they did a lot of good, do not deserve blind reverence.
Highly recommended when you are in the mood for something both scholarly and passionate.… (meer)
William Monroe Trotter is remembered in Boston in the name of a public elementary school but his life, work, and legacy are otherwise look. Kerri Greenidge's biography is a great introduction to the life of the Boston Civil Rights leader and activist who was most active during the 1890s to the 1920s.
Trotter was born into a prosperous family, the son of a decorated Civil War veteran, and held the position of Recorder of Deeds in the Grover Cleveland administration. Trotter grew up in the Hyde Park, then a predominately white suburb of Boston, and studied at Harvard University where he became the first Black man awarded with a Phi Beta Kappa key. Despite his elite background, Trotter as an activist would stand up for poorer and darker-skinned Blacks who were overlooked by other prominent Black leaders of the time. Much of his career was defined in opposition to Booker T. Washington's accommodationist strategies and the influence of his Tuskegee Institute.
Trotter's accomplishments include publishing The Guardian newspaper, which he set up to carry on the legacy of Boston abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator, which became one of the most influential Black newspapers in the early 20th century. Working with W.E.B. Dubois and others, Trotter participated in the Niagara Movement which lead to the establishment of the NAACP. He did not think the NAACP was radical enough, though, and objected to the prominence of white people in the leadership, so instead ended up forming the National Equal Rights League (NERL) in 1908, which failed to gain the support and membership of its rival.
On political issues, Trotter was adamant that Black voters remain independent and not align themselves. In 1912, Woodrow Wilson won the Presidency with the help of Black voters who swung the vote of Massachusetts and other states. After inauguration, Wilson caved to Southern whites and segregated Federal offices. Trotter lead protests against Wilson and had heated face-to-face meetings with the President which earned him a measure of fame in the Black community. Trotter also lead protests against the racist film The Birth of a Nation in 1915, which while they failed to stop the screenings of the movie, did energize the Boston Black activist community.
Trotter's latter years saw him fall into a steep personal and financial decline. Perhaps his fade from prominence contributed to why he was not well known after his death. But Greenidge argues that Trotter was the link in radical Black activism for liberation between Frederick Douglass and Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. I'm glad we have this biography to learn about this overlooked Black radical in Boston and American history.… (meer)
Trotter was born into a prosperous family, the son of a decorated Civil War veteran, and held the position of Recorder of Deeds in the Grover Cleveland administration. Trotter grew up in the Hyde Park, then a predominately white suburb of Boston, and studied at Harvard University where he became the first Black man awarded with a Phi Beta Kappa key. Despite his elite background, Trotter as an activist would stand up for poorer and darker-skinned Blacks who were overlooked by other prominent Black leaders of the time. Much of his career was defined in opposition to Booker T. Washington's accommodationist strategies and the influence of his Tuskegee Institute.
Trotter's accomplishments include publishing The Guardian newspaper, which he set up to carry on the legacy of Boston abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator, which became one of the most influential Black newspapers in the early 20th century. Working with W.E.B. Dubois and others, Trotter participated in the Niagara Movement which lead to the establishment of the NAACP. He did not think the NAACP was radical enough, though, and objected to the prominence of white people in the leadership, so instead ended up forming the National Equal Rights League (NERL) in 1908, which failed to gain the support and membership of its rival.
On political issues, Trotter was adamant that Black voters remain independent and not align themselves. In 1912, Woodrow Wilson won the Presidency with the help of Black voters who swung the vote of Massachusetts and other states. After inauguration, Wilson caved to Southern whites and segregated Federal offices. Trotter lead protests against Wilson and had heated face-to-face meetings with the President which earned him a measure of fame in the Black community. Trotter also lead protests against the racist film The Birth of a Nation in 1915, which while they failed to stop the screenings of the movie, did energize the Boston Black activist community.
Trotter's latter years saw him fall into a steep personal and financial decline. Perhaps his fade from prominence contributed to why he was not well known after his death. But Greenidge argues that Trotter was the link in radical Black activism for liberation between Frederick Douglass and Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. I'm glad we have this biography to learn about this overlooked Black radical in Boston and American history.… (meer)
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