“Life in what the newspapers call ‘the Dust Bowl’ is becoming a gritty nightmare;†Ann Marie Low wrote in 1934. Her diary vividly captures that “gritty nightmare†as it was lived by one rural family—and by millions of other Americans.
#5244107 in Books Bison Books 1996-09-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.00 x .46 x 5.25l; .47 #File Name: 0803261322165 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Four StarsBy Don HansonInteresting story that should be on High School reading lists.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy DenessiaI have a completely biased opinion because Henry Clay Bruce is my great-granduncle.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Slavery apologist becomes civil servantBy David WinebergIt is difficult to assess The New Man. It is a memoir; but it is unexpectedly confusing. The first two thirds of the book seem to be an apology for slavery in the USA. Bruce was born a slave in Virginia and Missouri and seemed to have been surrounded by largely beneficent masters who rarely took a whip to him. Instead; they gave each slave an acre of land of their own; and bought fancy clothes for them with the proceeds from the sale of crops on them. They ate good wholesome meals. Slaves went to dances; got to mingle; and children played with each other among the farms. Passes into town were common. In his world; there wasn’t much mixed race pregnancies; many slaves could read and/or write somehow; and many were rented out yearly to work in factories in cities where they enjoyed a better life. No one is tortured; beaten to death or lynched. It is difficult to rationalize this near-idyllic scenario with everything else I have read about slavery.Come the emancipation and the Civil War; things change. Masters offer slaves wages to stay put. A huge problem reveals itself in that newly freed blacks don’t know how to behave in society. They don’t know the value of money; what their labor is worth; how to provide for a family; behave in a legal marriage; etc. They are fat prey for scammers. And they find themselves in direct conflict and competition with Irish immigrants; who normally hold all the lowest paying jobs. Bruce says the government should have taken former slaves under its wing for at least a year of transition.He goes on at length about poor white trash; basically slaves who got to go home at night. They were uneducated; ignorant; ruthless; unfair and uncivil. And were looked down upon just as blacks were. They seemed to be a far greater menace than slave owners. Give poor white trash a tiny bit of power; and they lord it over you; because they can; Bruce says.In the last 30 pages; the gloves come off at last. Bruce blasts racism and slavery in specific detail; since he was one for 29 years and had another 29 years of freedom to compare it to. Unfortunately; he is just as racist; slamming the “Hebrews†for getting rich while providing nothing of value. He recommends blacks leverage their own political and economic resources and move forward as a united block. He ends with a long criticism of political patronage in Washington; as employees in the pension office where he worked were replaced for no other reason than a political favor was owing. He conveniently forgets that he got his own position through the political connections of his brother.So while there are definite insights here; The New Man is not the astounding blow by blow description of slavery and freedom it could have been.David Wineberg
