Following a Female Line - Softcover

Jeanette Stokes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0982184875 ISBN 13: 9780982184875

Publisher: Words & Spirit, 2015

Synopsis

Her grandmother's house in tiny Grandview, Texas, remains one of Jeanette Stokes' most precious childhood memories. As an adult, however, she began to suspect that values she found wedged in her psyche were an unwitting inheritance from the women in her female line. How in the world did her Scots-Irish ancestors manage to leave her with their stubborn faith, their tenacious hold on land, and their deep attachment to family? Join her as she searches through archives, history, and family lore to find out.

Stokes tracks her ancestors across oceans and continents as they searched for land, safety, and prosperity--dragging women, children, enslaved Africans, and their clannish, quarrelsome Scots-Irish temperaments with them.

Pushed out of Ireland by the English, they fled to the Carolinas, where they stayed until there were too many of them for the overworked soil to support. They moved to Arkansas, until the Civil War pushed them out, and finally to the vast lands of Texas, where Stokes' grandmother and mother were born.

As Stokes traces their migration, she puzzles over how to reconcile her ancestors' quest for material success with her own commitment to equity and justice.

About this title

About the Author

Jeanette Stokes is the founder and Executive Director of the Resource Center for Women & Ministry in the South, a nonprofit dedicated to feminism, spirituality, and social justice. She is the author of two collections of essays, 25 Years in the Garden and 35 Years on the Path, and two memoirs, Hurricane Season and Flying Over Home. A native of Oklahoma, she has made her home in North Carolina for over forty years and currently lives in Durham.

Edition details

• Publisher: Words & Spirit
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0982184875
• ISBN 13: 9780982184875
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 158