DOC 'Tis a Blessing to Be Irish (Elf Self Help) by Sharon McCullough; Rosemary Purdy in History

Description

“A work of astonishing ingenuity; intellectual and emotional depth; and (most of all) brilliant writing.”―John Demos; author of The Unredeemed Captive In the tradition of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s classic; A Midwife’s Tale; comes this groundbreaking narrative by one of America’s most promising colonial historians. Joshua Hempstead was a well-respected farmer and tradesman in New London; Connecticut. As his remarkable diary―kept from 1711 until 1758―reveals; he was also a slave owner who owned Adam Jackson for over thirty years. In this engrossing narrative of family life and the slave experience in the colonial North; Allegra di Bonaventura describes the complexity of this master/slave relationship and traces the intertwining stories of two families until the eve of the Revolution. Slavery is often left out of our collective memory of New England’s history; but it was hugely impactful on the central unit of colonial life: the family. In every corner; the lines between slavery and freedom were blurred as families across the social spectrum fought to survive. In this enlightening study; a new portrait of an era emerges. 16 pages of illustrations; 2 maps