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Summary
Summary
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.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
It is a tribute to the coauthorsD'Orso is a Virginia journalistthat Redford herself seems to be telling us this marvelous story directly, in her own clear voice. She was born into a black family of Columbia, N.C., in 1943, lived for periods in New York and, when she was 33, became a social worker in the South. She felt then the need to learn about the people she came from and began a research project that took 10 years. She discovered that although libraries and other archives contain a wealth of historical information about white familiesthe records quoted here add considerable interestthere were no black histories. She realized she had to look in county courthouses for bills of sale for slaves. 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. Redford heads a project to rebuild Somerset as a national heritage. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC and QPBC alternates. (August) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Prompted by the 1977 television presentation of Alex Haley's Roots, Redford, then 33, began investigating her own past, seeking answers to such questions as ""Who were my great-grandparents? Where did they come from? Were they slaves?""--""things [she and her 13-year-old daughter Deborah] never talked about."" The author's recounting of her search and its eventual culmination in a reunion of hundreds of the descendants of the slaves who lived, labored, and died at North Carolina's Somerset Plantation is a proud and moving saga, told with dignity and immense warmth. At the beginning of her search, Redford devoted every free moment to poring over census records (slaves were not listed before 1870), checking courthouse records for bills of sale, tracking down the surnames of slave families (almost always the names of early slaveholders). With this information in hand, she eventually approached elderly blacks in the Virginia/North Carolina area for whatever oral traditions they could provide. The narrative reads like a detective novel as Redford accumulates evidence. Gradually, her attention focused on Somerset Plantation, located on the edge of North Carolina's Dismal Swamp and now maintained by the State as a historical site-cum-tourist attraction. Visiting Somerset, Redford was shocked that so little mention was made of the slaves who had built and maintained the antebellum plantation. Her research began filling in the blanks in its history--the arrival of a slave ship in 1786 bearing 80 ""Negroes"" to build a canal on the property; the deprivations that attended the Civil War and the changes that resulted from Lee's surrender. Redford became determined to hold a ""family reunion"" at Somerset, and the sections dealing with her efforts to bring it to reality, the growing interest in the event, and the final triumphant celebration provide a fitting climax to her inspiring story. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
When Redford began a search into her personal genealogy, she never anticipated that it would culminate in a family gathering of more than 2,000 relations at the Somerset plantation, where their ancestors once lived as slaves. The best part of the actual homecoming, and of this chronicle of its evolution, is the positive spirit both evoke. Redford has sought and found her American ``roots'' (literally inspired by Alex Haley) and generated a sense of pride in her fellow family members despite the horrors of slavery. Their common heritage is the important factor. Redford's determined search through archival documents is informative as well as inspiring, but her affirmation of black family life is overwhelming. DPD. 929'.3 Somerset Place (North Carolina)-History / Afro-Americans-North Carolina-History / Slavery-North Carolina-History / Family reunions-North Carolina / Afro-American families / Afro-Americans-Genealogy / North Carolina-Genealogy [CIP] 87-35155
Library Journal Review
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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| Beginnings | p. 1 |
| 'Over de River' | p. 23 |
| The Road Home | p. 45 |
| The Arrival | p. 61 |
| Voices from the Past | p. 83 |
| Connecting | p. 115 |
| Somerset Homecoming | p. 137 |
| Epilogue | p. 161 |
| Sources | p. 165 |
