Chained to the Rock of Adversity offers valuable insight into the lives of the Old South's free women of color; using personal letters and a diary to tell an extraordinary story.The letters; from family members and friends; were written between 1844 and 1899 to Ann Battles Johnson; wife of prominent Natchez businessman William T. Johnson; and her daughter Anna; while Ann's daughter Catharine wrote the diary. A freed slave herself; Ann Johnson became the head of her family and a slaveholder before the Civil War. Her days were filled with the often tedious and sometimes overwhelming duties assigned to slaveholding women; but her race separated her from most other women of this class. The writings depict a tight-knit network of family and friends and show a family well aware of its precarious position in society; feared by most whites and resented by other blacks.Editor Virginia Meacham Gould provides an extensive introduction; a cast of characters; identifying notes; and a brief afterword tracing the Johnson family to the present day.
#6568178 in Books 1994-06Original language:EnglishPDF # 22 9.00 x 6.00 x .75l; #File Name: 0819195162270 pages
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