The America: War Service of a Racing Yacht -- Find out why the 'world's most famous sailboat, who gave her name to the America's Cup regatta, became a Confederate blockade-runner out of Jacksonville in the war, was scuttled in Palatka, and then re-floated to become a Union blockader. Yulee's Railroad — Florida's first railroad and the men who built and ran it. For years, the Union held both ends; the Confederates held the middle. The 1864 battle of Olustee was fought over it. The survivors of the 1923 Rosewood massacre owed their lives to it. A History of the Minstrel Show -- Was minstrelsy racist to the root, or was it just vulgar working-class theater? This essay examines the minstrel show's folk origins, outlines a typical performance, and traces its legacy in American entertainment today. The Longstreet Controversy -- Learn why Confederate General James Longstreet's reputation was destroyed between 1872 and 1890 by two still-alive falsehoods: that Lee's defeat at Gettysburg lost the war for the South, and that Longstreet caused Lee's defeat. The Evolution of Rifle Tactics -- Why didn't Civil War soldiers take cover? Learn why it took 65 years for tactics to catch up with technology: Claude Minie's invention of the military rifle. The Evolution of Indirect Fire -- Why didn't Civil War artillery shoot from behind a hill? Learn why cannons deployed in the front line to fire directly at the enemy until technology changed tactics.

Six Gems of Forgotten Civil War History: Essays That Did Not Make it Into the Dissertation, But Were Too Much Fun to Discard

History

Sweet, Frank W

Americas

Boxes & Arrows, Incorporated

Every Year, 35,000 Black-Born Youngsters Redefine Themselves as White. About 1/3 of "White" Americans have detectable African DNA. Genealogists were the first to learn that America's color line leaks. Black researchers often find White ancestry. White genealogists routinely uncover Black ancestry. Molecular anthropologists now confirm Afro-European mixing in our DNA. The plain fact is that few Americans can truly say that they are genetically unmixed. Yet liberals and conservatives alike agree that so-called Whites and Blacks are distinct political "races." When did ideology triumph over reality? How did America paint itself into such a strange corner? Americans changed their concept of "race" many times. Eston Hemings, Jefferson's son, was socially accepted as a White Virginian because he looked European. Biracial planters in antebellum South Carolina assimilated into White society because they were rich. Intermarried couples were acquitted despite the laws because some courts ruled that anyone one with less than one-fourth African ancestry was White, while others ruled that Italians were Colored. Dozens of nineteenth-century American families struggled to come to grips with notions of "racial" identity as the color line shifted and hardened into its present form. This 542-page book tells their stories in the light of genetic admixture studies and in the records of every appealed court case since 1780 that decided which side of the color line someone was on. Its index lists dozens of 19th-century surnames. It shows that: The color line was invented in 1691 to prevent servile insurrection. The one-drop rule was invented in the North during the Nat Turner panic. It was resisted by Louisiana Creoles, Florida Hispanics, and the maroon (triracial) communities of the Southeast. It triumphed during Jim Crow as a means of keeping Whites in line by banishing to Blackness any White family who dared to establish friendly relations with a Black family. This analysis of the nearly 300 appealed court cases that determined Americans' "racial" identity may be the most thorough study of the legal history of the U.S. color line yet published.

Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule

Backintyme

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sweet, Frank W. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Sweet, Frank W

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sweet, Frank W. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Six Gems of Forgotten Civil War History: Essays That Did Not Make it Into the Dissertation, But Were Too Much Fun to Discard

Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule