Customer Reviews

Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia

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Great example of true, hard-to-find storytelling. Very compelling. For those who love history combined with modern-day issues this is the book to read. Easy to see that a great deal of research went into telling the story of a group of Mississippi slaves and what became of them and their descendants over the course of a century and a half. Takes you back in time -- down a road of intrigue, sadness and hope for the future. Huffman does a nice job.

Alan Huffman's book on the history of a group of freed slaves, their journey back to Africa and the modern story of Liberia is important and very interesting. Huffman gives us (1) a view of life and history that formed our society and culture in Mississippi, (2) provides an overview of Liberia's history and our connection to it (a chapter of US history that is seldom mentioned ... I never heard of Liberia and the US role in its founding before arriving in West Africa in 1978), and (3) shows that Faulkner was right in saying that the past continues to impact us.

In 1978 I went to Guinea Bissau,West Africa, to work on a USAID (foreign aid) program in the country's rice growing region. It was there that I heard, for the first time, of a group of freed slaves returning to Africa and establishing a country, Liberia, in 1821 with it's capital named after the fifth US president James Monroe. By 1838, 20,000 American blacks (ex-slaves and freed men --- including the slave group from Jefferson County that was the subject of his research) made up the population of the Colonization Society and Liberia. Today the descendants of these settlers make up about 5 percent of Liberia's population. This elite group dominated the political and economic sectors for more that 150 years. A backlash against this group in 1980 by descendants of local tribesmen caused the chaos that grips modern day Liberia. It's important to me and you today because of the potential links that states in chaos have to terrorist groups (Huffman talks of the potential laundering of Al Queda money through diamond sales in Liberia and the attempt to use the country as a conduit for the purchase of illegal arms --- including stinger missles).

Huffman brings the reader full circle and gives interesting details of his research and the people he meets along the way. He also provides details on our Mississippi history about slave and slaveholder interaction and the cultural values it imprinted on our society. I also liked the tidbits of history like the origin of Alcorn State University (evolving from a school for the sons of plantation owners to the first land grant college in the United States). This is a good book that I highly recommend.

Recently I heard Huffman speak about his book. I was unfamiliar with the story he told. Although his talk was interesting enough to result in my purchase of the book, it did not prepare me for the journey i took once I read the book. This book is a must read for anyone interested in discovering an overlooked and fascinating piece of Mississippi history and the history of slavery. The story he tells is one we all should read for a better understanding of how the intentions of one country man in Mississippi a century later can influence a country in Africa.

Alan Huffman has pieced together an amazing true pre-Civil War story of the freeing of hundreds of former slaves and their passage from Mississippi to Africa, all carried out pursuant to the dying wishes of a plantation owner after years of politicized legal wrangling. Mr. Huffman's journey in tracing the current descendants of the former enslaved to current day Liberia then reminds us of how the past and the present always come together, and of the eternal struggles found in the innateness--good and bad--of human nature.

The first section of this book, in telling the events that led to the freedom of the Prospect Hill slaves, provides the reader with a detailed historical background regarding slavery, the mood of the country, and the many complex forces working both for and against those slaves in the mid-Nineteenth Century United States. For a history buff, this was lagniappe on top of what was already a very fascinating story.

The second section of the book chronicles the author's trip to Liberia to contact descendants of the freed slaves. Again, in addition to a very interesting story, the reader is treated to more, from the history of the country to a detailed account of present day conditions in this impoverished, war-torn country.

The author took an interesting story and did a great job of putting it on paper. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in history.

Huffman takes readers through quite a journey as he gives the history of abolitionists in Mississippi and the ultimate return of blacks to Africa. His story is fascinating and I simply couldn't put down the book until I read every page.

What a great story. This book covers so many subjects in a complete and interesting way. There is the detective story of the slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and their lives, a story of the current state of affairs in southern Mississippi and finally a gripping account of modern day Liberia and its turbulent history. Just a great story that I wished would go on longer.

Huffman spins a compelling narrative about the West African country whose destiny, for better or for worse, has been intertwined with its "stepchild-like" relationship with the United States. The book is well written and a page turner. My only critique is that by focusing on one particular group of individuals, Huffman necessarily sacrifices the proverbial forest for a very impressive tree. This book would best be read by the non-specialist who has first taken a look through a good political history of Liberia like the ones written by Professors Sawyer (THE EMERGENCE OF AUTOCRACY IN LIBERIA, Institute for Contemporary Studies), Ellis (THE MASK OF ANARCHY, New York University Press), or Pham (LIBERIA: PORTRAIT OF A FAILED STATE, Reed Press).

Most folks don't realize the transition that has taken place in the deep South in the past 3 decades. The change from a fully segregated society to one, if not completely integrated, where the races are on an equal footing has not been easy for either race. One of the missing components in this integration is a common history beyond master and slave. "Mississippi in Africa" is an important piece of this "lost history." In communities where they are demographically capable, African Americans have obtained almost complete political control. Although not necessarily popular or completely successful, the political transition has been relatively peaceful. Not so in Liberia. The tragedy of Mississippi in Africa magnifies the successes of Mississippi in America. There is plenty in this book for all races to ponder on.

Wow! Thank you, Alan! I'm still reading this amazing book, which I began night before last. You make me feel like I am on the journey with you as you pursue the threads of this story. I couldn't put the book down the first night I decided to read a couple of pages before going to sleep. And you were talking about a crummy, boring will, for God's sake! How could you rivet me to your page by talking about a will? In spite of my promise to myself that I wouldn't stay up like that the next night, it happened again.

I began to understand the part of my family that moved to Mississippi. We're white. In fact, I began to understand America better. I can place my African-American grand-niece into a better framework of 'the big picture.' Her father was African. I can understand the black man I almost married.

Alan, you are a story-teller in the old tradition, the way I was raised. You invite people into your space, to walk with you and think along with you, to feel with you. Anyone who calls you 'narcissistic' or 'self-preoccupied' with your own research is probably so anesthetized against real human interaction that he or she prefers that every observation about the world be sterilized into the third person, like an encyclopedia. I'm old enough now to see through that. You hooked my interest and aroused my passion for this story. That's good. I could've put this book down after the first five pages, but now I'm going to buy it, even after I finish reading the library's copy.