New additions to the collections of the Government and Heritage Library:
The Black Family in Slavery & Freedom, 1750-1925, by Herbert Gutman. The author rewrites the history of the black family through historical research on the nature of kinship in Afro-American culture and demonstrates how enslavement and poverty did not shatter black family ties.
Double Character: Slavery and Mastery in the Antebellum Southern Courtroom, by Ariela Gross. This book examines how hundreds of antebellum legal cases between blacks, whites and those “in-between” were litigated and how the practice of law in the U.S. antebellum South was interwoven with the practice of slavery.
To Free a Family: the Journey of Mary Walker, by Sydney Nathans. Through a portrait of a runaway slave, the author describes the world of fugitives, separation from loved ones, and the struggle to reunite with families broken by slavery.
Urban Slavery in the American South, 1820-1860, by Claudia Goldin. This book recounts the surprising history of the economics of urban slavery the 19th century.
A Way Out of No Way: Claiming Family and Freedom in the New South, by Dianne Swann-Wright. The author captures and relates the history of her ancestors – African Americans in central Virginia- after the Civil War and describes the transition from the master slave relationship to that of employer employee and how the emancipated learned to be free.
Library materials will be available for check out at the Government and Heritage Library by North Carolina State Agency employees or may be borrowed through an interlibrary loan request at your local public library. To view other new library acquisitions, click here.
