Audiobook14 hours
Denmark Vesey's Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy
Written by Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts
Narrated by Tom Perkins
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
A book that strikes at the heart of the recent flare-ups over Confederate symbols in Charlottesville, New Orleans, and elsewhere, Denmark Vesey's Garden reveals the deep roots of these controversies and traces them to the heart of slavery in the United States: Charleston, South Carolina, where almost half of the U.S. slave population stepped onto our shores, where the first shot at Fort Sumter began the Civil War, and where Dylann Roof shot nine people at Emanuel A.M.E. Church, the congregation of Denmark Vesey, a black revolutionary who plotted a massive slave insurrection in 1822.
As early as 1865, former slaveholders and their descendants began working to preserve a romanticized memory of the antebellum South. In contrast, former slaves, their descendants, and some white allies have worked to preserve an honest, unvarnished account of slavery as the cruel system it was.
Examining public rituals, controversial monuments, and whitewashed historical tourism, Denmark Vesey's Garden tracks these two rival memories from the Civil War all the way to contemporary times, where two segregated tourism industries still reflect these opposing impressions of the past, exposing a hidden dimension of America's deep racial divide.
As early as 1865, former slaveholders and their descendants began working to preserve a romanticized memory of the antebellum South. In contrast, former slaves, their descendants, and some white allies have worked to preserve an honest, unvarnished account of slavery as the cruel system it was.
Examining public rituals, controversial monuments, and whitewashed historical tourism, Denmark Vesey's Garden tracks these two rival memories from the Civil War all the way to contemporary times, where two segregated tourism industries still reflect these opposing impressions of the past, exposing a hidden dimension of America's deep racial divide.
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Reviews for Denmark Vesey's Garden
Rating: 4.380952619047619 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
21 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Of the countless books covering the Civil War and slavery, many of which I've read, I don't know of a single one that so perfectly shows us the humanity - and inhumanity - of it all from a southern perspective. This book is exceptionally well researched and well written. It's not at all 'text book dry', but instead comes alive with the sights and sounds of the south. The focus is on one city, Charleston, South Carolina, which is essentially where it all began. This narrow focus manages to encompass the crux of the war; before, during, and after. Here we see how and why the US came away with two opposing views of what caused this war, what we were fighting for and about, and what it all means to us today. I was born and raised in the Northeast, at the time when Black Americans were fighting for equality and desegregation in the south. As a young child, I didn't know racism was "a thing". I had no idea that the black family at the table beside us at a restaurant would not have those same rights in a southern town. I couldn't fathom such a world as a child, and I had no reason to imagine it. During my early teens, as we learned about the Civil War, we were taught, without question, that it was about slavery. Then, I moved to the south, and suddenly I see rebel flags and my children were being taught that the Civil War was about States' rights, not slavery. (In my mind, the two issues are essentially the same thing, with the southern states wanting the right to own slaves, but what do I know?) That was my first exposure to the opposing views, and I didn't understand it at all. This book captures it perfectly, from beginning to end, showing the struggle from both the white and black perspectives, so that I now understand the division in ways I never had before.This country is fractured. This book gives us tremendous insight into where the fracture began and why it persists. *The publisher provided me with a review copy, via Amazon Vine.*