1992 Myers Center Outstanding Book on Human Rights Historians have produced scores of studies on white men; extraordinary white women; and even the often anonymous mass of enslaved Black people in the United States. But in this innovative work; Adele Logan Alexander chronicles there heretofore undocumented dilemmas of one of nineteenth-century America’s most marginalized groups—free women of color in the rural South.Ambiguous Lives focuses on the women of Alexander’s own family as representative of this subcaste of the African-American community. Their forbears; in fact; included Africans; Native Americans; and whites. Neither black nor white; affluent nor impoverished; enslaved nor truly free; these women of color lived and died in a shadowy realm situated somewhere between the legal; social; and economic extremes of empowered whites and subjugated blacks. Yet; as Alexander persuasively argues; these lives are worthy of attention precisely because of these ambiguities—because the intricacies; gradations; and subtleties of their anomalous experience became part of the tangled skein of American history and exemplify our country’s endless diversity; complexity; and self-contradictions.Written as a “reclamation†of a long-ignored substratum of our society; Ambiguous Lives is more than the story of one family—it is a well-researched and fascinating profile of America; its race and gender relations; and its complex cultural weave.
#1340871 in Books Blue n Grey Press 1987Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 2.01 x 8.07 x 11.15l; 3.87 #File Name: 1555211992688 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. An informative look at Battles and CavalryBy M. WilsonThis book is a treasure trove of information for those interested in Battles and the Cavalry. I have a better understanding of the Cavalry as my previous studies had been about the infantry since I do living history. My great-grandfather was in the 6th Indiana Cavalry and I learned much about his life in this branch of service.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Critical buyerBy Critical BuyerGreat book.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Good readBy tlIf anyone wants to know the full history of the civil war through pictures; this is the book! I recommend all 5 volumes in the series.
