Description
Book SynopsisWhat is the value of Black life in America?In Avidly Reads Passages, Michelle D. Commander plies four freighted modes of travelthe slave ship, train, automobile, and busto map the mobility of her ancestors over the past five centuries. In the process, she refreshes the conventional American travel narrative by telling an urgent story about how history shapes what moves us, as well as what prevents so many Black Americans from moving or being moved. Anchored in her maternal kin's long history on and alongside plantations in rural South Carolina, Commander explores her family members' ability and inability to navigate safely through space, time, and emotion, detailing how Black lives were shaped by the actual vehicles that promised an escape from the confines of American racism, yet nearly always failed to deliver on those promises. Using personal and public archives, Avidly Reads Passages unfolds distinct histories of transatlantic slavery ships, the possibilities presented by rail line
Trade ReviewAvidly Reads Passages is an inventive exploration of the relationship between African American identity and mobility. * Lithub.com *
Commander’s personal reflections, family history, and anecdotal history of Richland County provide rich material for thinking about Black bodies in motion and their relation to place, labor, capitalism, liberalism, and the state. * American Literary History *
