'Til Death Or Distance Do Us Part


Book Description

Conventional wisdom tells us that marriage was illegal for African Americans during the antebellum era, and that if people married at all, their vows were tenuous ones: "until death or distance do us part." It is an impression that imbues beliefs about black families to this day. But it's a perception primarily based on documents produced by abolitionists, the state, or other partisans. It doesn't tell the whole story. Drawing on a trove of less well-known sources including family histories, folk stories, memoirs, sermons, and especially the fascinating writings from the Afro-Protestant Press,'Til Death or Distance Do Us Part offers a radically different perspective on antebellum love and family life. Frances Smith Foster applies the knowledge she's developed over a lifetime of reading and thinking. Advocating both the potency of skepticism and the importance of story-telling, her book shows the way toward a more genuine, more affirmative understanding of African American romance, both then and now.




Bound in Wedlock


Book Description

Winner of the Stone Book Award, Museum of African American History Winner of the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize Winner of the Littleton-Griswold Prize Winner of the Mary Nickliss Prize Winner of the Willie Lee Rose Prize Americans have long viewed marriage between a white man and a white woman as a sacred union. But marriages between African Americans have seldom been treated with the same reverence. This discriminatory legacy traces back to centuries of slavery, when the overwhelming majority of black married couples were bound in servitude as well as wedlock, but it does not end there. Bound in Wedlock is the first comprehensive history of African American marriage in the nineteenth century. Drawing from plantation records, legal documents, and personal family papers, it reveals the many creative ways enslaved couples found to upend white Christian ideas of marriage. “A remarkable book... Hunter has harvested stories of human resilience from the cruelest of soils... An impeccably crafted testament to the African-Americans whose ingenuity, steadfast love and hard-nosed determination protected black family life under the most trying of circumstances.” —Wall Street Journal “In this brilliantly researched book, Hunter examines the experiences of slave marriages as well as the marriages of free blacks.” —Vibe “A groundbreaking history... Illuminates the complex and flexible character of black intimacy and kinship and the precariousness of marriage in the context of racial and economic inequality. It is a brilliant book.” —Saidiya Hartman, author of Lose Your Mother




A Promise Unbroken


Book Description

As the civil war begins, the wealthy Ruffin family is torn by forces threatening their way of life. Experience the heartache and dramatic victory of two couples battling jealousy and racial hatred.




Battles of Destiny 2-in-1 Vol. 1


Book Description

Dramatic Tales of Love and Civil War The Battles of Destiny series is now available in four attractive two-in-one volumes! Bestselling author Al Lacy packs each dramatic novel in the popular historical fiction series with heartwarming romance and solid moral values. Set during the Civil War, these are the tales of families, soldiers, nurses, and spies as they contend with the deadly threats posed by war and the eternal hope that springs from love. Fast-moving and historically accurate, these stories appeal to men and women who enjoy a trip back in time. Now longtime and new Lacy fans can purchase the entire Battles of Destiny classics and enjoy hours of endless reading pleasure. It was the war that divided our country, shaping the destinies of future generations. It was the war that brought forth triumphant men, women, and families who dared to fight bravely, sacrifice unconditionally, and love without end. THE CIVIL WAR A Promise Unbroken As the first winds of Civil War sweep across the Virginia countryside, the wealthy Ruffin family is torn by forces that threaten their way of life and, ultimately, their promises to one another. Mandrake and Orchid, slaves on the Ruffin plantation, must also fight for the desire of their hearts. Heartache and victory. Jealousy and racial hatred. From a prosperous Virginia plantation to a grim jail cell outside of Lynchburg , follow the dramatic story of love indestructible. A Heart Divided Wounded early in the Civil War, Captain Ryan McGraw is nursed back to health by army nurse Dixie Quade. In her tender care, love’s seed is sown. But with the sudden appearance of Victoria, the wife who once abandoned Ryan, and the five-year-old son he never knew he had, come threats endangering the lives of everyone involved. Between the deadly forces of war and two loves, McGraw is caught with a heart divided. Story Behind the Book “While studying American history in high school, I was struck with a strange fascination for the Civil War. That fascination grew stronger when I studied it again in college, and I’ve visited many of the sites where the battles took place. When I visited the Appomattox Court House in Virginia , where General Robert E. Lee signed the documents of surrender before General Ulysses S. Grant, I was struck with the thought of creating a series of novels based upon specific battles in the Civil War. I wanted to mold fictional characters with real ones and fill the stories with romance, suspense, intrigue, and the excitement of battle. That’s how the Battles of Destiny series came to be.” —Al Lacy




Til Death Do Us Part


Book Description




Future History


Book Description

Future History traces the ways that English and American writers oriented themselves along an East-West axis to fantasize their place in the world. The book builds on new transoceanic scholarship and recent calls to approach early American studies from a global perspective. Such scholarship has largely focused on the early national period; Bross's work begins earlier and considers the intertwined identities of America, other English colonial sites and metropolitan England during a period before nation-state identities were hardened into the forms we know them today, when an English empire was nascent, not realized, and when a global perspective such as we might recognize it was just coming into focus for early modern Europeans. The author examines works that imagine England on a global stage in the Americas and East Indies just as--and in some cases even before--England occupied such spaces in force. Future History considers works written from the 1620s to the 1670s, but the center of gravity of Future History is writing at the mid-century, that is, writings coincident with the Interregnum, a time when England plotted and launched ambitious, often violent schemes to conquer, colonize or otherwise appropriate other lands, driven by both mercantile and religious desires.




Jumping the Broom


Book Description

In this definitive history of a unique tradition, Tyler D. Parry untangles the convoluted history of the "broomstick wedding." Popularly associated with African American culture, Parry traces the ritual's origins to marginalized groups in the British Isles and explores how it influenced the marriage traditions of different communities on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. His surprising findings shed new light on the complexities of cultural exchange between peoples of African and European descent from the 1700s up to the twenty-first century. Drawing from the historical records of enslaved people in the United States, British Romani, Louisiana Cajuns, and many others, Parry discloses how marginalized people found dignity in the face of oppression by innovating and reimagining marriage rituals. Such innovations have an enduring impact on the descendants of the original practitioners. Parry reveals how and why the simple act of "jumping the broom" captivates so many people who, on the surface, appear to have little in common with each other.




The Distance from Me to You


Book Description

Wild meets Endless Love in this multilayered story of love, survival, and self-discovery McKenna Berney is a lucky girl. She has a loving family and has been accepted to college for the fall. But McKenna has a different goal in mind: much to the chagrin of her parents, she defers her college acceptance to hike the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia with her best friend. And when her friend backs out, McKenna is determined to go through with the dangerous trip on her own. While on the Trail, she meets Sam. Having skipped out on an abusive dad and quit school, Sam has found a brief respite on the Trail, where everyone’s a drifter, at least temporarily. Despite lives headed in opposite directions, McKenna and Sam fall in love on an emotionally charged journey of dizzying highs and devastating lows. When their punch-drunk love leads them off the trail, McKenna has to persevere in a way she never thought possible to beat the odds or risk both their lives.




The Distance Between Us


Book Description

In this inspirational and unflinchingly honest memoir, acclaimed author Reyna Grande describes her childhood torn between the United States and Mexico, and shines a light on the experiences, fears, and hopes of those who choose to make the harrowing journey across the border. Reyna Grande vividly brings to life her tumultuous early years in this “compelling...unvarnished, resonant” (BookPage) story of a childhood spent torn between two parents and two countries. As her parents make the dangerous trek across the Mexican border to “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) in pursuit of the American dream, Reyna and her siblings are forced into the already overburdened household of their stern grandmother. When their mother at last returns, Reyna prepares for her own journey to “El Otro Lado” to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father. Funny, heartbreaking, and lyrical, The Distance Between Us poignantly captures the confusion and contradictions of childhood, reminding us that the joys and sorrows we experience are imprinted on the heart forever, calling out to us of those places we first called home. Also available in Spanish as La distancia entre nosotros.




Til Death Do Us Part


Book Description

Resheda-Rae Alexandria Mona and Clyde Ramon Muscat are newlyweds living a very successful, lavish, and lucrative lifestyle in New York City. They love the lifestyle that New York offers, as the couple enjoys the high life. Working hard and playing hard, their marriage is exciting and new. They say their vows in Manhattan and honeymoon in Hawaii. They purchase a home and open a bar in the City that they name Tempo NYC! And they also vacation in the Hamptons in the summer with friends. Clyde is a successful and esteemed banker who relishes spending and investing his money. He heads one of Manhattan’s largest financial institutions, and as president of operations he makes the decisions. Well-salaried Clyde has always been enamored with money; he loves money so much that he even wallpapers his office with it. So when a big offer comes his way for an easy payday, he cannot miss out on a chance to have more. Unbeknownst to Clyde, Resheda-Rae is a CIA special agent. She covers her career as a special agent by working as a broker of her own real estate firm and a professional home decorator. She cannot disclose her status to Clyde for his safety. Their love is new and affectionate as they live life fast and free … until he comes under her scope. Then she must deal with the pain of bringing him to justice and possibly losing the love of her life. Their marriage will indeed last Til Death Do Us Part.