An African American folk saying declares; "Our God can make a way out of no way.... He can do anything but fail." When Dianne Swann-Wright set out to capture and relate the history of her ancestors―African Americans in central Virginia after the Civil War―she had to find that way; just as her people had done in creating a new life after emancipation. In order to tell their story; she could not rely solely on documents from the plantation where her forebears had lived. Unlike the register of babies born; marriages made; or lives lost that white families’ Bibles contained; ledgers recorded Swann-Wright’s ancestors; as commodities. Thus Swann-Wright took another route; setting out to gather spoken words―stories; anecdotes; and sayings. What results is a strikingly rich and textured history of a slave community.Looking at relations between plantation owners and their slaves and the succeeding generations of both; A Way out of No Way explores what it meant for the master-slave relation to change to one of employer and employee and how patronage; work relationships; and land acquisition evolved as the people of Piedmont Virginia entered the twentieth century. Swann-Wright illustrates how two white landowners; one of whom had headed a plantation before the Civil War; learned to compensate freed persons for their labor. All the more fascinating is her study of how the emancipated learned to be free―of how they found their way out of no way.
#964249 in Books Rutgers University Press 2010-01-19 2010-01-19Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.90 x .60 x 5.90l; .68 #File Name: 0813546923220 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Chinese Americans: One "Size" Does Not Fit AllBy John JungProfessor Xiaojian Zhao's book is one of the most important analyses of the state of Chinese America I have read in the past several years. Well-documented with demographic data; she convincingly demonstrates the dramatic transformation of this population after the 1965 immigration law reforms that greatly increased the flow of Chinese from many different areas than Guangdong; the province in southern China from which the vast majority of Chinese immigrants came before 1943 (the year the Chinese Exclusion Act was symbolically ended). She further noted that by the 1940s; the majority of Chinese Americas were no longer immigrants; but were U.S. born. However; the 1965 shift in immigration policy has created a Chinese America that in the 2000 census showed over 70 percent of Chinese in America were born outside of the U.S. Such a huge transformation has major consequences for Chinese in America; both in how they deal among themselves and how non-Chinese America regards Chinese in America. Contrary to her book title; THE NEW CHINESE AMERICA; Zhao's findings clearly make the case that there are MULTIPLE "New Chinese Americas." In addition to the varied geographical origins of these newer Chinese; and the associated differences in language; politics; and customs; there are important social class differences even within subgroups. In many situations; more powerful Chinese Americans; and not non-Chinese Americans; are the worst enemies of the poorer Chinese Americans; especially the undocumented ones who are widely exploited by their compatriots. (A rough estimate is that a half million of the roughly 3 million Chinese in America are undocumented; for a variety of reasons too complex to summarize here) Unfortunately; because so many Chinese Americans have achieved so well since the 1950s; there is a tendency for society to conclude that Chinese are the "model minority;"overcoming societal injustices through hard work and education on their own initiative; but Zhou's findings regarding the size and plight of 'invisible' underclass among Chinese immigrants show a quite different picture of the composition and condition of Chinese America. Zhou's book also sends a message to Chinese Americans to recognize; and reject; the oppressive conditions that Chinese with social power impose on less educated and lower income Chinese in America. Will members of the more powerful Chinese Americas choose to include or continue to ignore and exclude members of the disadvantaged Chinese Americas?
