Friday, June 12, 2009

Summer Reading Challenge Book Review 3

I have finished my third book for this reading challenge! The book I read this time was Soul By Soul: Life Inside The Antebellum Slave Market by Walter Johnson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999). Like the two previous books I read and reviewed, this book was on the reading list for my fall history class.

As you can tell from the book's title, the book focuses on the slave market in the South between 1810 and 1865. Most of the focus is on the New Orleans slave market, but the author does focus on the internal slave trade between the Upper and Lower South. The author also focuses on the slave masters and slaves thoughts and experiences with the slave trade and slavery. Additionally, he also explores how slave traders were able to convert human beings into items, and the beliefs of those who bought the slaves.

Although I have read about slavery in the United States before, I did not have a complete comprehension of the evils of slavery. I knew slavery was evil, but I did not realize or comprehend how bad it was until I read this book. For me, this book brought the experience of slavery to life more than anything else I had read before, and I was able to picture what life was like to live in a society with slavery, either as a slave or someone who was free. This book brought an aspect of history to life that I had read before and thought I understood. If you want to learn more about slavery in the United States, I highly recommend that you read this book.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Family History Center Update

I received a phone call from the local Family History Center earlier today, and I learned that the three microfilms I ordered a couple weeks ago have arrived. I hope to be able to pay a visit to the center soon. Stay tuned ...

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Wedding Belles: A Beautiful Wedding Picture


As you may or may not remember, I wrote about the Henry's in my family that had married women from Canada last year, and a few weeks ago, I found this photograph of one of the Henry's weddings at my grandma's house. This photograph happens to be of the marriage of Henry Klippel to his second wife, Mary Oman, and was taken in Cleveland, Ohio in 1908. Isn't this a beautiful photograph? I am amazed at the quality of this old photograph, and as soon as I saw the picture, I fell in love with it. To me, this picture is very special, and I cannot get over how beautiful it is. I hope you enjoy this photograph as well. Enjoy!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Carnival Editions Updates!

As you may or may not remember, I did not post the topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. I was waiting to hear back from the person who had promised to host the carnival, and since I have not heard back, I have decided to host the 20th edition here on my blog. The topic for the next edition will be a carousel. The deadline for the submissions will be June 26th, and the edition will be posted on June 28th.

In addition, the 21st edition will be hosted by Thomas of Destination: Austin Family. The topic for that edition, as suggested by Thomas, will be on "How did your ancestors celebrate the glorious season of summer both back home in Europe and here in America? Did they need to make adjustments once here in America since the weather was different? Or summer customs were different? Include memories, photos, recipes – anything that helps tell summertime stories." The deadline for that edition will be July 20th, and the edition will be published on July 25th. (I will post a reminder at the end of the 20th edition.)

You can submit your articles here. Thanks!

Summer Reading Challenge Book Review 2

I have finished reading another book for this summer's reading challenge, and like the previous review, the book I read was also on the reading list for my fall history classes. And like the previous book, this book is a social history of Early American history, but it focuses on the south only.

Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt by Christine Leigh Heyrman (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1997), focuses on the early Evangelical churches in the Southern United States and how the South became to be the center of Evangelical Christianity in the U.S. The time period of the book stretches from 1740 to 1840, but the primary focus of the book is on the years between 1790 and 1830. The Evangelical churches explored in this book are the Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches, but most of the book focuses only on the Methodists and Baptists. For me, the most interesting thing to learn about was that prior to the American Revolution, the Evangelical churches were rejected by Southerners, and thus, the author's exploration into why that was so, was the most interesting part of the book for me. As for the later and greater acceptance of the Evangelical churches. Although, I disagreed with some of the author's conclusions in the epilogue, I would still recommend this book for others to read as I found it to be quite interesting, so much so, that I would like to read about the Evangelical movement occurring in the Northern part of America in the same time period. I hope that other people will find this book as interesting as I did. Enjoy!

Another Award!


Within the past few days and earlier today, Cheryl of Heritage Happens and Gini of Ginisology both awarded me with the Janich Brown Pukerbrush Blog Award. Thank you Cheryl and Gini for giving me the award! I feel grateful and honored for receiving the award.
So, what I do I have to do with this award? Well, I have to give this award to 10 other bloggers. Those ten bloggers are:

I hope everyone enjoys this award. Again, thank you, Cheryl and Gini for the award! Enjoy!