Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage - Softcover

Redford, Dorothy Spruill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807848433 ISBN 13: 9780807848432

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000

Synopsis

In 1860, Somerset Place was one of the most successful plantations in North Carolina--and its owner one of the largest slaveholders in the state. More than 300 slaves worked the plantation's fields at the height of its prosperity; but nearly 125 years later, the only remembrance of their lives at Somerset, now a state historic site, was a lonely wooden sign marked "Site of Slave Quarters."

Somerset Homecoming, first published in 1989, is the story of one woman's unflagging efforts to recover the history of her ancestors, slaves who had lived and worked at Somerset Place. Traveling down winding southern roads, through county courthouses and state archives, and onto the front porches of people willing to share tales handed down through generations, Dorothy Spruill Redford spent ten years tracing the lives of Somerset's slaves and their descendants. Her endeavors culminated in the joyous, nationally publicized homecoming she organized that brought together more than 2,000 descendants of the plantation's slaves and owners and marked the beginning of a campaign to turn Somerset Place into a remarkable resource for learning about the history of both African Americans and whites in the region.

About this title

Book Description:

"This is a compelling book, made notable by the author's intensely personal struggle to confront the past that was, for much of her life, something that she once felt 'no longer mattered'. . . . A fine book that serves as a reminder of how important it is to reach for your heritage."-- Our State

From the Inside Flap:

Chronicles the author's ten-year quest to trace the history of her enslaved ancestors and her successful efforts to reunite more than 2,000 of their descendants at Somerset Place, the original plantation, now a historic site in North Carolina.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0807848433
• ISBN 13: 9780807848432
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176