Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage [Paperback]

Dorothy Spruill Redford (Author), Michael D'Orso (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1989

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.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Redford, born into a black family of Columbia, N.C., in 1943, researched her roots over a period of 10 years. "There are moments of drama, high humor and sorrow in Redford's odyssey. It's a joy to share her triumph at identifying her forebears, then bringing together 2000 of their descendants in 1986. The homecoming was at Somerset Place, the plantation in North Carolina where their ancestors were slaves," said PW. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Alive with crisp prose, this book tells of Redford's unusual accomplishment of uniting the descendants of black slaves, some of whom were kin, on the antebellum Somerset Plantation in North Carolina where their ancestors had worked, lived, and been enslaved. The consuming passion that pushed Redford through her painful, groping search for identity yields a treasure of black struggle and survival in slavery and afterward, climaxing with a black homecoming carried nationally by the media. This poignant, personal saga of black roots and branches is recommended for Afro-American, Southern, local history, and genealogy collections. A gem. Thomas J. Davis, SUNY at Buffalo
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (July 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385242468
• ISBN-13: 978-0385242462
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,172,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best African American family history since "Roots"., November 10, 1998

By 

mkeillor "mkeillor" (Fayetteville, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage (Paperback)

I read this the first time because it was a new genealogy book at my local library. More than just an engaging story about a woman's search for a heritage to pass down to her daughter, it also qualifies itself as the best "How To" on African-American Genealogy, because in the course of telling her story, Ms. Redford explains how she found her information. I recommend it all the time to friends researching African American family history.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspirational testimony to the importance of family, December 15, 2001

By 

C. Slate (Lakeland, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage (Paperback)

In this book, Dorothy Redford shows the power of tenacity and courage. She had a dream--to uncover the past, to discover the story of her enslaved ancestors--and she sacrificed and toiled until she found out the truth, bit by bit. The inspiration is that she did not stop there. Now she lives that dream by educating others, both by her book and at the plantation where she is executive director, about the reality of slavery life. I recommend this book highly to anyone who admires or hopes to immulate someone who has realized a dream.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent history of the Littlejohn family, April 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage (Paperback)

I thought this was an excellent history of not only plantation slavery in America, but also the dedication of an individual to find out their heritage.