A Terrible Intimacy: Interracial Life in the Slaveholding South
Unspools the complex lives of Black and white residents of Prince Edward County, Va., before the Civil War ... Each dissected in detail, Ely convincingly reveals how the antebellum social order was defined both by violent white supremacy and by a surprising variety of interracial relationships ... Historians typically process their research behind the scenes and serve up a relatively smooth narrative, using citations or summaries of evidence to buttress their interpretations. By contrast, Ely gives us an X-ray view into how he works ... His conversational tone echoes the intimacy of the relationships he traces in the book, although in a few instances his affection for details ends up distracting from his larger points.
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Historians typically craft third-person narratives that impart a sense of objectivity and distance from the reader. Mr. Ely takes an unconventional approach by acting as a narrator and interpreter. His book reads as a conversational account peppered with occasional quips about contemporary political events ... Although Mr. Ely’s research shows that enslaved and free people engaged with one another in surprisingly personal ways, these six trials also warn readers that focusing 'on the intimacies without recognizing the terrors obscures the fundamental character of a system that indeed poisoned and depraved everything it touched.'
A fascinating account of life in the antebellum American South.
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