Based on family documents and extensive research, this chronicle of one American family captures two centuries of African-American history through the eyes of the Maddens of Virginia.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A caste within a caste, free Negroes in early America inhabited an anomalous tier of society, permitted--as slaves were not--to marry but denied education and restricted in the occupations they could follow. Madden, a self-described wealthy Virginia octogenarian, has painstakingly pieced together an account of his family's experiences as free Negroes from see next change scraps of old account books, indentures, census tracts, tombstones and family lore. Beginning with Madden's to avoid dangler, ok? first known ancestor in America, who worked 200 years ago in Virginia as an indentured servant to James Madison's family, the book, written with freelancer Miller, follows the trials and victories of Mary Madden's descendants as they struggled on the road to real freedom. Against the odds, family members became literate and skilled and acquired property. In this tale an unfamiliar chunk of U.S. history vividly emerges. Artfully simple, and with substantial introductory comments by Painter, a Princeton history professor, this is a moving and freshly revealing account of personal and national experience. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-- Any book that deals with genealogy usually, unfortunately, is compared to Alex Haley's immensely successful Roots (Dell, 1980). Although Madden's book is not as entertaining, it is informative and valuable. He traces his family's story back to an indentured servant from Ireland, Mary Madden, who gives birth to Sarah Madden, whose biological father was a slave and the property of James Madison, Sr., the father of the future president of the United States. Because Virginia law dictated that a child automatically take the mother's status, Sarah and each of her 13 children would be indentured servants for 31 years. The author details the woman's struggle to raise and keep her family together and to survive in the face of laws that the Virginia legislature had enacted against free African-Americans. These brief glimpses of beliefs held by men such as Madison and Thomas Jefferson on the topics of slavery and free African-Americans are enlightening. A story that shows that the driving force for any family's success is the importance it places on the welfare and future of its children.
- Paul McKendrick, Glasgow Middle School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Paul McKendrick, Glasgow Middle School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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