Thanks to all of you who attended last night’s book group meeting with Dr. Michael Vorenberg, author of Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle To End the American Civil War. We had a great turnout and I think it was a huge success.
Your thoughtful questions and comments kept the discussion moving at a nice pace. I was pleasantly surprised to see such a rich discussion between participants taking place as well. I only wish that the recording that gets produced could include your comments and questions in a running stream like you will find on a live stream at YouTube.
I hope all of you thought the conversation went smoothly enough. I am still open to your thoughts about moving this to zoom, but I am now even more convinced that Substack live is the better platform.
For those of you, who are not yet paid subscribers, I’ve made this video available to everyone. I hope it helps to push you toward upgrading. If you are a serious student of the Civil War era and want to meet others, who are just as interested in this history, this is the group for you. It is money well spent and it is also a way to support this newsletter and my work as a historian and educator.
Our Next Book and Meeting
I am excited to announce that our next book will be All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles.
From the book jacket description:
In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag for her with a few items, and, soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the sack in spare, haunting language.
Historian Tiya Miles carefully traces these women’s faint presence in archival records, and, where archives fall short, she turns to objects, art, and the environment to write a singular history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and love passed down against steep odds. It honors the creativity and resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today.
The book won the National Book Award and a number of other prizes. Dr. Miles teaches history at Harvard and in my mind is one of the most imaginative and creative historians working today.
I noticed that Tiya Miles does have a Substack account and newsletter, so perhaps there is a chance that I can convince her to join us.
Our discussion will take place on Sunday, August 3 at 8PM EST. This should give you plenty of time to read the book.
If you would like to join the next book discussion or any of my regular live chats, make sure to download the Substack app to your phone.
Thanks again to all of you who participated.
