Description
Book SynopsisLife in the old South has always fascinated Americans--whether in the mythical portrayals of the planter elite from fiction such as Gone With the Wind or in historical studies that look inside the slave cabin. Now Brenda E. Stevenson presents a reality far more gripping than popular legend, even as she challenges the conventional wisdom of academic historians. Life in Black and White provides a panoramic portrait of family and community life in and around Loudoun County, Virginia--weaving the fascinating personal stories of planters and slaves, of free blacks and poor-to-middling whites, into a powerful portrait of southern society from the mid-eighteenth century to the Civil War. Loudoun County and its vicinity encapsulated the full sweep of southern life. Here the region''s most illustrious families--the Lees, Masons, Carters, Monroes, and Peytons--helped forge southern traditions and attitudes that became characteristic of the entire region while mingling with yeoman farmers of Germ
Trade ReviewThis book about the lives of blacks and whites in Loudoun County, Va., in the century before the Civil War makes fascinating reading. * The Washington Times *
Brenda Stevenson has written an eloquent, original, and humane book on the most intimate aspects of life in the antebellum South. * Edward L. Ayers, Professor of History, The University of Virginia, and author of The Promise of the New South. *
