deanna_etc's review against another edition
4.0
I think what I liked a lot about Rachel May's book was that this story is probably not unique in the grand scheme of US History, but the fact that she's one of the very very few people telling this story makes it so unique. The huge amount of research and passion that went into this book is palatable and left me wanting more -- like to see the quilt for myself, and to look more closely at flea markets and car boot sales for hidden histories waiting to be unraveled.
jacque18's review against another edition
1.0
Way too long-400 pages. Could have been trimmed by half. The author goes off on way too many tangents-clearly found lots of interesting material and wanted to include everything.
purplemegant's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of reading what looked like a heavily academic historical book. Definitely a fascinating way to learn about history. My only qualm is that at times it was very repetitive. The author foreshadows, presents info, recaps and then sporadically returns to and repeats situations along the way. But then my mind did think about how that just continues to draw the whole story together as if a continuous thread was woven throughout the whole book. Fits well with the quilt theme.
yooperann's review against another edition
5.0
We seem to have arrived at a new time in our national reckoning with the sin of slavery. I'm thinking of Confederate monuments, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Isabel Wilkerson, the $20 bill, the new Legacy Museum in Alabama, the new National Museum of African American Culture in D.C. and much more. Rachel May's book makes an excellent contribution to this discussion.
The non-fiction book is anchored by an unfinished quilt, found in Providence, Rhode Island, that was begun by a Rhode Island woman, Susan Crouch,who had married and moved to Charleston, South Carolina in the decades before the Civil War. May researches three generations of the Crouch family, and all she can find of the enslaved women--Juba, Eliza, Minerva, and Jane--who shared homes and lives with Susan and her family. She paints vivid pictures of not only the day-to-day lives of the residents of Charleston, black and white, enslaved and free, but also of slavery as it existed in New England and of the tight economic and personal bonds that existed between the slaveowners of the south and the textile manufacturers of New England. Even as she stands in judgement of Susan's abolitionist sisters, who benefited so much from the slave trade they derided, May does not shy away from the moral complexities raised by contemporary parallels. What does it mean to wear clothes made by women working under terrible conditions in factories in Pakistan? Does it help them or hurt them to buy clothes from thrift shops instead?
I also appreciated that May shares the times her own assumptions are challenged by those she meets. I was struck by her consistent use of the term "enslaved peoples" instead of "slaves" and she tells us of the time she was caught up short and corrected when she used the latter term. At another point she is remarking to an African-American colleague that there should be more historical markers about the slave trade in Providence, only to be told that markers to African-American perseverance would be appreciated more than those marking their oppression.
The book is not perfect, of course. Like anyone who has done a tremendous amount of research, May sometimes includes extraneous bits that might better have been omitted. While the book is much richer for her chapter about Harriet Powers, an amazing African-American quilter and folk artist born into slavery (and yes, there are photos of the quilts), there was probably no need to mention, even in passing, the guy recreating the microscope Charles Darwin brought on the Beagle. More startling is the lack of an index. There are pages and pages of notes, appropriate for this scholarly work, but more than once I found myself wanting to flip to the index so I could remind myself who a particular character was or to look up a particular topic. But these are minor flaws in an essential book.
Highly recommended.
The non-fiction book is anchored by an unfinished quilt, found in Providence, Rhode Island, that was begun by a Rhode Island woman, Susan Crouch,who had married and moved to Charleston, South Carolina in the decades before the Civil War. May researches three generations of the Crouch family, and all she can find of the enslaved women--Juba, Eliza, Minerva, and Jane--who shared homes and lives with Susan and her family. She paints vivid pictures of not only the day-to-day lives of the residents of Charleston, black and white, enslaved and free, but also of slavery as it existed in New England and of the tight economic and personal bonds that existed between the slaveowners of the south and the textile manufacturers of New England. Even as she stands in judgement of Susan's abolitionist sisters, who benefited so much from the slave trade they derided, May does not shy away from the moral complexities raised by contemporary parallels. What does it mean to wear clothes made by women working under terrible conditions in factories in Pakistan? Does it help them or hurt them to buy clothes from thrift shops instead?
I also appreciated that May shares the times her own assumptions are challenged by those she meets. I was struck by her consistent use of the term "enslaved peoples" instead of "slaves" and she tells us of the time she was caught up short and corrected when she used the latter term. At another point she is remarking to an African-American colleague that there should be more historical markers about the slave trade in Providence, only to be told that markers to African-American perseverance would be appreciated more than those marking their oppression.
The book is not perfect, of course. Like anyone who has done a tremendous amount of research, May sometimes includes extraneous bits that might better have been omitted. While the book is much richer for her chapter about Harriet Powers, an amazing African-American quilter and folk artist born into slavery (and yes, there are photos of the quilts), there was probably no need to mention, even in passing, the guy recreating the microscope Charles Darwin brought on the Beagle. More startling is the lack of an index. There are pages and pages of notes, appropriate for this scholarly work, but more than once I found myself wanting to flip to the index so I could remind myself who a particular character was or to look up a particular topic. But these are minor flaws in an essential book.
Highly recommended.
vulveeta's review against another edition
2.0
she calls harriet tubman a feminist killjoy which is just a lil bit 2 much for me
chriswolak's review
This book started with great promise but by page 70 I was having my doubts. I read further, until page 130-something, and then let it go. I'm not exactly sure what "creative nonfiction" is supposed to be. I can understand taking some liberties with primary sources and making up stories/ connections/ feelings based around them, but some of the statements just got a little too ridiculous and far fetched and, well, pointless in some cases. Most surprising was the fact that the quilt wasn't really used as a strong vehicle upon which to tell this "creative nonfiction" story. I think May's fascination with the people she was researching and writing about may have been better served had she written a novel with an accompanying appendix about the quilt. All seven members of my book group panned the book. We all thought it was a great idea but poorly executed.
taraswiger's review
I love the premise: a quilter finds an old quilt top in an archive and dives deep into researching the white family and enslaved people who made it possible.
But I had to stop because:
A. It’s a little dense for my limited focus right now. Maybe later?
B. The author is repetitive of the basics facts and the timeline, and tends to include a bit of quoted text from letters, then repeat exactly what the letter said. It made it all harder to follow. I want to read this book after a pretty rigorous editing, as the story itself is fascinating. I’d love to learn more about the history of stitching and enslaved people in pre-civil war America.
But I had to stop because:
A. It’s a little dense for my limited focus right now. Maybe later?
B. The author is repetitive of the basics facts and the timeline, and tends to include a bit of quoted text from letters, then repeat exactly what the letter said. It made it all harder to follow. I want to read this book after a pretty rigorous editing, as the story itself is fascinating. I’d love to learn more about the history of stitching and enslaved people in pre-civil war America.
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