Inherit the Land: Jim Crow Meets Miss Maggie's Will - Brossura

Stowe, Gene

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1934110604 ISBN 13: 9781934110607

Casa editrice: Univ Pr of Mississippi, 2007

Riassunto

In the early twentieth century, two wealthy white sisters, cousins to a North Carolina governor, wrote identical wills that left their substantial homeplace to a black man and his daughter.

Maggie Ross, whose sister Sallie died in 1909, was the richest woman in Union County, North Carolina. Upon Maggie's death in 1920, her will bequeathed her estate to Bob Ross--who had grown up in the sisters' household--and his daughter Mittie Bell Houston. Mittie had also grown up with the well-to-do women, who had shown their affection for her by building a house for her and her husband. This house, along with eight hundred acres, hundreds of dollars in cash, and two of the white family's three gold watches went to Bob Ross and Houston. As soon as the contents of the will became known, more than one hundred of Maggie Ross's scandalized cousins sued to break the will, claiming that its bequest to black people proved that Maggie Ross was mentally incompetent.

Revealing the details of this case and of the lives of the people involved in it, Gene Stowe presents a story that sheds light on and complicates our understanding of the Jim Crow South. Stowe's account of this famous court battle shows how specific individuals, both white and black, labored against the status quo of white superiority and ultimately won. An evocative portrait of an entire generation's sins, Inherit the Land: Jim Crow Meets Miss Maggie's Will hints at the possibility for color-blind justice in small-town North Carolina.

Su questo libro

Dal risvolto di copertina interno

The history of a legal fight in which an all-white jury awarded African Americans a North Carolina estate

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Univ Pr of Mississippi
• Data di pubblicazione: 2007
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1934110604
• ISBN 13: 9781934110607
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Disegnatore: Sergio Carl A.
• Numero di pagine: 309
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Germania