Publisher's Weekly Review
Faced with "a plethora of stories about promiscuous coupling and fatherless families, instability, and group dysfunction," Foster (Written by Herself) illuminates the African-American historical experience of love and marriage through the stories "that antebellum African Americans told among themselves." She relies particularly on the records of the 18th century Free African Union Societies of Newport, R.I., and Philadelphia and 19th-century slave narratives along with contemporaneous novels and poems. The most groundbreaking content stems from the Afro-Protestant press periodicals, which are "treasure troves of ideas, experiences, and ideals." She has more on her mind than emending the historical record; after leaving the antebellum period, where she amply demonstrates that African-American marriage "was frequent, that family ties were strong," she embarks on digressive journeys. Her meditations-on "negative contemporary narratives," the work of various social scientists ("friendly fire in our battle to be a free people in a free country"), her daughter's wedding, and the Defense of Marriage Act-somewhat dilute the richness of her primary theme. Still, readers will be freshly informed by the historical and, perhaps, engaged by the tangential. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice Review
Foster (Emory Univ.) details the difficulties African Americans have faced in their struggle to form lasting and fulfilling love connections and marriages, be they legal or otherwise. She examines marriages in the antebellum US and threads her narrative through the connections and meanings of marriage under the pressure of slavery and the struggle to maintain meaningful relationships that transcended distance and even death. Her audience is distinctly African American. She wants readers to identify with a distinct past and distinguish myth and half-truths from fact. Her book is to be seen as a journey to an understanding of self-identification for African Americans through the knowledge of their heritage and their unique, albeit troubled, history in the US. Foster transposes her stories of successful and failed attempts at slave marriages with the need for identification of modern-day African Americans to own a separate space within the dominant society. Easily accessible for undergraduate and graduate students alike. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. C. Warren Empire State College
Publisher's Weekly Review
Faced with "a plethora of stories about promiscuous coupling and fatherless families, instability, and group dysfunction," Foster (Written by Herself) illuminates the African-American historical experience of love and marriage through the stories "that antebellum African Americans told among themselves." She relies particularly on the records of the 18th century Free African Union Societies of Newport, R.I., and Philadelphia and 19th-century slave narratives along with contemporaneous novels and poems. The most groundbreaking content stems from the Afro-Protestant press periodicals, which are "treasure troves of ideas, experiences, and ideals." She has more on her mind than emending the historical record; after leaving the antebellum period, where she amply demonstrates that African-American marriage "was frequent, that family ties were strong," she embarks on digressive journeys. Her meditations-on "negative contemporary narratives," the work of various social scientists ("friendly fire in our battle to be a free people in a free country"), her daughter's wedding, and the Defense of Marriage Act-somewhat dilute the richness of her primary theme. Still, readers will be freshly informed by the historical and, perhaps, engaged by the tangential. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice Review
Foster (Emory Univ.) details the difficulties African Americans have faced in their struggle to form lasting and fulfilling love connections and marriages, be they legal or otherwise. She examines marriages in the antebellum US and threads her narrative through the connections and meanings of marriage under the pressure of slavery and the struggle to maintain meaningful relationships that transcended distance and even death. Her audience is distinctly African American. She wants readers to identify with a distinct past and distinguish myth and half-truths from fact. Her book is to be seen as a journey to an understanding of self-identification for African Americans through the knowledge of their heritage and their unique, albeit troubled, history in the US. Foster transposes her stories of successful and failed attempts at slave marriages with the need for identification of modern-day African Americans to own a separate space within the dominant society. Easily accessible for undergraduate and graduate students alike. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. C. Warren Empire State College
