For the urban Ohio River valley, the richest source of evidence about African Americans’ personal service work derives from Eliza Potter’s singular autobiography, A Hairdresser’s Experience in High Life, published in Cincinnati in 1859. Born in New York, Potter moved to Cincinnati as a young woman in 1834. She worked as a child’s nurse in several wealthy white households and accompanied one family to Paris in 1841. After a dispute over wages, Potter left the family to learn the art of hairdressing. Returning to the United States after traveling and working in both France and England, she built a successful career dressing wealthy clients whom she dubbed “our aristocracy.” Continue Reading Excerpt: Bonds of Union, by Bridget Ford
Today’s recipe is from Bill Smith’s Crabs and Oysters. Bill Smith is the chef at Crook’s Corner Restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C. Whether you make it to the beach this summer or not, you can still enjoy this tasty seafood dish! Continue Reading Recipe: Crab & Shrimp Calas
Published in the New Yorker, the long piece meditated on American racism, seeing white prejudice as arising from the reality that the “white man’s masculinity depends on a denial of the masculinity of the blacks” and that therefore the nation subjected the “Negro” to many “horrors.” After reading the essay, Kennedy had reportedly contacted Baldwin and sought the meeting because he wished to hear “fresh” ideas on “coping with civil rights problems.” If he had invited only the older and more moderate celebrities, such as Lena Horne or Harry Belafonte, it seems unlikely that the meeting would have ended as it did, in frank disagreement and an acrimonious exit. But the presence of Jerome Smith, a participant in the southern Freedom Rides that continued to press for the desegregation of buses and stations, had raised the stakes. Continue Reading Excerpt: Not Straight, Not White, by Kevin J. Mumford
It is hard to know exactly how many of the Hare captives lived in clusters that permitted them contact with their countrymen and countrywomen. To start, we do know that forty-four of the fifty-six were purchased along with at least one other Hare captive, while eleven were purchased singly, but even being purchased together did not necessarily mean the captives would stay together. Africans throughout the Americas placed a special importance on the shipmate relationship. Shipmates treated one another as kin, and recognition of the bond might continue into subsequent generations. However, being purchased in company with another Hare captive did not guarantee an enduring, close shipmate relationship. Continue Reading Excerpt: The Voyage of the Slave Ship Hare, by Sean M. Kelley
Today’s recipe is from Virginia Willis’s Okra. Chef and food writer Willis hails from Atlanta and is author of Bon Appétit, Y’all, Basic to Brilliant, Y’all, and the James Beard Award-winning Lighten Up, Y’all. Willis sure knows her okra, too! Fried okra is a Southern favorite, and Willis prepares hers in the oven instead of a deep fryer. Oven-fried okra pairs perfectly with barbecue, or on its own as a delectable snack! Continue Reading Recipe: Oven-Fried Okra
In 1969 the Pensacola NAACP’s Youth Council listed “police brutality” as one of their two primary concerns for the coming decade, and numerous incidents supported their claim into the 1970s. Continue Reading J. Michael Butler: Wendel Blackwell, Philando Castile, and the Continuing Black American Freedom Struggle
It’s easy to stand on a beach and watch waves moving sand around, but we tend to forget it’s the wind that makes the waves. In that sense, wind is the fundamental cause of major changes on a beach. Continue Reading Excerpt: Sea Breeze activity from Lessons from the Sand
Today’s recipe is from Kathleen Purvis’s Bourbon. Kathleen Purvis is the food editor of the Charlotte Observer, a well-known food writer, and a long-time member of the Southern Foodways Alliance. After Pecans, this is her second book. Her recipe is great for those mornings when you feel like making something a little more special than your run-of-the-mill bacon and eggs. Continue Reading Recipe: Bourbon Benedict
Thus on July 30 as a group of supporters paraded towards the Mechanics’ Institute with drum and fife, they were followed by a white mob. That mob was then joined by local police and members of the fire department who helped storm the Mechanics’ Institute and allowed the mob access to the convention-goers, most of whom were unarmed. By the end of the day over forty black Republicans lay dead, along with three white Republican allies and one white rioter. Many of the slain African American men were Union veterans. The violence spread beyond the Mechanics’ Institute as blacks across the city were attacked and their property vandalized. According to the U.S. House Select Committee on the riot, “Scores of colored citizens bear frightful scars more numerous than many soldiers of a dozen well-fought fields can show.” Continue Reading Emily Suzanne Clark: 150 Years After the Mechanics’ Institute Riot
Randy Johnson, author of Grandfather Mountain: The History and Guide to an Appalachian Icon, suggests the best ways to explore the mountain in this interview with Carolina Today. Continue Reading Video: Randy Johnson on the best ways to explore Grandfather Mountain
Today’s recipe is from Kelly Alexander’s Peaches. Alexander’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, and O: The Oprah Magazine. She is co-author of the New York Times best-selling barbecue cookbook Smokin’ with Myron Mixon. She lives in Chapel Hill, N.C. Her peach frozen yogurt is everything you ever loved about summer in one delicious dish! Continue Reading Recipe: Caroline and David’s Peach Frozen Yogurt
Although the source of the 9/11 attacks was quite novel and although both the scale and the location of the harm “they” inflicted on “us” were unprecedented, the notion of a virtuous America endangered by wicked and violent enemies was not new at all. Indeed, from the moment that John Winthrop and the Puritans dropped anchor in Massachusetts Bay in 1630 and vowed to build a “City Upon a Hill,” Americans have tended to view the world in terms of “us versus them.” Continue Reading Excerpt: Us Versus Them, by Douglas Little
Don’t let Melania Trump’s Monday night speech be your guide to what Michelle Obama said in 2008. Instead, keep listening. There is more to learn than who borrowed what words. Continue Reading Martha S. Jones: Don’t Miss Out on What Michelle Obama Actually Said in 2008
oday’s recipe is from Sandra A. Gutierrez’s Beans and Field Peas. Gutierrez is the author of Latin American Street Food and The New Southern–Latino Table. A well-known culinary instructor, she lives in Cary, North Carolina. Her recipe today is full of summer (and southern) goodness. What’s not to love about a salad with corn, tomato, and bacon? Continue Reading Recipe: Pink-Eyed Peas, Corn, Tomato, and Bacon Salad
Samuel Aspenwall did not say anything about his early boyhood. He began his account of his service, as did his sister Mary in her supporting deposition, with recollections of the family arguments about the lad enlisting. He said nothing about why he wanted to serve. We can imagine war news swirling around him, his family, and his town during his boyhood by reading other historical sources: local newspapers, local muster rolls that indicate that veterans were coming and going, and understanding the interactions of town life. What veterans’ anecdotes or ministers’ sermons he heard, what games played, songs sung, or books read that caused this “Strong desire,” is something difficult even to guess. Continue Reading Excerpt: Boy Soldiers of the American Revolution, by Caroline Cox
Today’s recipe is from Jay Pierce’s Shrimp. Jay Pierce is chef at The Marshall Free House in Greensboro, North Carolina. He has written for CNN’s Eatocracy blog, Edible Piedmont, Savor NC, and Beer Connoisseur. His shrimp ceviche recipe is chock-full of Latin flavors and can easily be subbed with other types of fish. Continue Reading Recipe: Shrimp Ceviche
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