[This week marks the 150th anniversary of the horrific Colfax Massacre, one of many such Reconstruction sesquicentennials over the next decade. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy five Reconstruction histories we need to better remember, leading up to a special weekend post on a vital new scholarly book.]
On three reasons
why Kidada Williams’ I
Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War against
Reconstruction (2023) is a must-read.
1)
The Author: I’ve written about Dr. Kidada
Williams a couple prior times on the blog: reflecting on our Southern
Historical Association panel together here; and highlighting her work on
the psychological and emotional effects of racial violence and terrorism (the
topic on which she presented on that SHA panel) in this
post on Beloved. Her work on that
particular, crucial historical (and of course all too contemporary) topic is
quite simply the best I’ve ever encountered on those fraught and definingly
American themes, and would be more than enough to make me beyond excited for
any new project of hers. But that’s just one portion of her work, which also
includes the excellent Seizing Freedom podcast; a podcast that begins quite specifically with
Reconstruction and which made me particularly stoked for Williams’ new book on
that period.
2)
The Premise: As its subtitle suggests, that new
book certainly extends and deepens Williams’ analyses of racial terrorism and
its effects, bringing that lens to bear on Reconstruction in important new ways.
But I think her central premise is more straightforward yet even more groundbreaking
than that: a history of Reconstruction that focuses not on political figures and
debates, nor activists for civil rights, nor white supremacist forces, but
instead on the everyday African American experience. Williams has found and
analyzes a ton of vital first-person voices and accounts, but also reads more
familiar documents and materials anew through this emphasis on the collective
African American experience of the era, opening Reconstruction and its
histories and stories up in ways that even Du Bois didn’t manage
(understandably, given the limitations of research and travel in his era; but I’m
just saying, this book takes things a significant step further).
3)
This Book Talk: Still
not convinced? Well there’s no one better to convince you of this book’s
importance than Williams herself, and that early February book talk is a great
way to hear more of the book as well as her purposes and perspective. Check it
out, then get your hands on I Saw Death
Coming pronto!
Next
series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Other books on Reconstruction (new or not) you’d highlight?
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