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Reviews
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Writer Edward Ball opens Slaves in the Family with an anecdote: "My father had a little joke that made light of our legacy as a family that had once owned slaves. 'There are five things we don't talk about in the Ball family,' he would say. 'Religion, sex, death, money and the Negroes.'" Ball himself seemed happy enough to avoid these touchy issues until an invitation to a family reunion in South Carolina piqued his interest in his family's extensive plantation and slave-holding past. He realized that he had a very clear idea of who his white ancestors were--their names, who their children and children's children were, even portraits and photographs--but he had only a murky vision of the black people who supported their livelihood and were such an intimate part of their daily lives; he knew neither their names nor what happened to them and their descendents after they were freed following the Civil War. So he embarked on a journey to uncover the history of the Balls and the black families with whom their lives were inextricably intertwined, as well as the less tangible resonance of slavery in both sets of families. From plantation records, interviews with descendents of both the Balls and their slaves, and travels to Africa and the American South, Ball has constructed a story of the riches and squalor, violence and insurrection--the pride and shame--that make up the history and legacy of slavery in America. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Eric A. Wilson
...a compelling, unblinking history... The amount of research and interviewing Ball has put into Slaves in the Family is amazing. He deserves high praise for sticking to his original goal of identifying slave descendants and establishing the blood relationship between his family and the descendants of slaves. The Los Angeles Times, Benjamin Schwarz
Ball ... has an interesting story to tell, but he is probably not the right one to tell it, because his need to apologize for his family's misdeeds keeps him from examining their history in a clear-eyed way. The San Francisco Chronicle, Charlotte Painter
In this landmark book, Edward Ball, a white writer, makes a deep, lancing cut into the national wound of white supremacy.... Slaves in the Family has the potential for creating a perceptual shift in the American mind.
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Customer Reviews
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Fascinatiing look at "forbidden" topic
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Reviewer:
A reader
from Montgomery, AL
November 29, 1999
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I enjoyed this book immensely. Much to my surprise, after reading it I learned from relatives doing geneaology research that one of our ancestors had married into the Ball family, so I feel a connection to them even though our family was Quaker and very definitely anti-slavery. I loved Edward Ball's droll sense of humor about the topic and his description of how his efforts were received in black and white quarters. We need more books like this one.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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1 people found this review helpful.
0 did not.
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Strange book.
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Reviewer:
onegoodeye
from Lehi, Utah
November 23, 1999
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The author is a bit too self-indulgent for a book of general interest. About a fourth of the information would be better saved for a Ball family reunion. Another quarter should not be included at all (like the description Ball gives of the old house he stayed in while visiting Charleston). Still, the point of view IS unique and strangely interesting. I would not try to convince someone to read it any more than I would try to talk someone out of reading it. The best part is the oral history of the Ball slave's descendents.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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3 people found this review helpful.
1 did not.
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made our book group think
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Reviewer:
dnjblades@worldnet.att.net
from Rancho Bernardo (San Diego), CA
October 20, 1999
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Our book group, made up of mainly senior citizens, was unanimous in agreement that this is a book worth reading. We felt it was a little long and tedious in parts. However, we all learned something about slavery and the people involved. We do have two questions--Is the author married? and How did he finance all the traveling involved? Neither of these questions is any of our business, but we are interested. A good book.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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3 people found this review helpful.
0 did not.
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fascinating topic, but slow read
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Reviewer:
Katherine F. Peake (peake@fbg.net)
from Fredericksburg, Texas
October 6, 1999
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I love non fiction, especially books that take me where I've never gone before. I don't ask for excitement on every page, but I do like to get a sense of a different time or place. This book is excruciatingly exact in details, but they're not details of general, historical interest. True, there are just scraps of information to go by, but they could have been fleshed out by what is known from other sources. Ball limited his book to what he found and what people told him, and painstakingly details what he found and who told him what. This is boring. Who cares whether someone was wearing pressed pants and eating chicken? To his credit, he told a story whose time is long overdue, he just needed a better editor.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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3 people found this review helpful.
2 did not.
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See all 54 customer reviews...
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