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Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the Links (review)

Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the Links (review) books Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the Links By Gwendolyn Midlo Hall University of North Carolina Press 28 pp. Cloth, $.95 Reviewed by Daniel C. Littlefield, Carolina Professor of History, University of South Carolina, and author of Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina. When Alex Haley's Roots appeared in 1976 it set off a storm of excitement among African Americans about the possibilities of tracing their ancestry to a particular African homeland. The success of the television series based on the book, which attracted more viewers than any series up to that time, fanned the flames and spread an interest in African heritage beyond the African American community, inciting curiosity if not genuine concern. Of course, for every popular action there is an equally popular counter-action. While many enthusiastically embraced the notion that a personal search was plausible and useful, others were just as firm that the idea was misplaced and a waste of time. Africans were so mixed among themselves, so blended with Europeans, so lacking in reliable documentation, and so bereft of much worth remembering anyway, that it were better to focus on the future and to http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Southern Cultures University of North Carolina Press

Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the Links (review)

Littlefield, Daniel C.
Southern Cultures , Volume 15 (2) – May 16, 2009
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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
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Copyright © University of North Carolina Press
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1534-1488
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Abstract

books Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the Links By Gwendolyn Midlo Hall University of North Carolina Press 28 pp. Cloth, $.95 Reviewed by Daniel C. Littlefield, Carolina Professor of History, University of South Carolina, and author of Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina. When Alex Haley's Roots appeared in 1976 it set off a storm of excitement among African Americans about the possibilities of tracing their ancestry to a particular African homeland. The success of the television series based on the book, which attracted more viewers than any series up to that time, fanned the flames and spread an interest in African heritage beyond the African American community, inciting curiosity if not genuine concern. Of course, for every popular action there is an equally popular counter-action. While many enthusiastically embraced the notion that a personal search was plausible and useful, others were just as firm that the idea was misplaced and a waste of time. Africans were so mixed among themselves, so blended with Europeans, so lacking in reliable documentation, and so bereft of much worth remembering anyway, that it were better to focus on the future and to

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Southern Cultures – University of North Carolina Press

Published: May 16, 2009

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