The Red Cotton Fields


Book Description

The Red Cotton Fields is story written in the tradition of great historical epics. The story begins on a Georgia plantation in the year 1850, ending on the gold fields of Australia in the year 1884. This is a story surrounding three southern families (the plantation owners, the plantation overseer's family and a Negro slave family) leading up to and including the Civil War. The reader will experience the demise of a southern plantation and follow two of plantation's previous occupants (Bart Royal, the white overseer's son, and Reiner Washington, an escaped slave) as they rise to become two of the richest men in the world. Also, The Red Cotton Fields is a classic love story between the plantation's owner's daughter, Holly Ballaster, and the overseer's son, Bart Royal, The Red Cotton Fields is destined to become a classic. Read it and you will understand why.




From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse


Book Description

In the years immediately following the Civil War_the formative years for an emerging society of freed African Americans in Mississippi_there was much debate over the general purpose of black schools and who would control them. From Cotton Field to Scho




From Cotton Fields to University Leadership


Book Description

The renowned leader in higher education provides “a testament to the power of aspiration, character and education to overcome poverty and adversity” (Michael L. Lomax, President & CEO, United Negro College Fund). Charlie Nelms had audaciously big dreams. Growing up black in the Deep South in the 1950s and 1960s, working in cotton fields, and living in poverty, Nelms dared to dream that he could do more with his life than work for white plantation owners sun-up to sun-down. Inspired by his parents, who first dared to dream that they could own their own land and have the right to vote, Nelms chose education as his weapon of choice for fighting racism and inequality. With hard work, determination, and the critical assistance of mentors who counseled him along the way, he found his way from the cotton fields of Arkansas to university leadership roles. Becoming the youngest and the first African American chancellor of a predominately white institution in Indiana, he faced tectonic changes in higher education during those ensuing decades of globalization, growing economic disparity, and political divisiveness. From Cotton Fields to University Leadership is an uplifting story about the power of education, the impact of community and mentorship, and the importance of dreaming big. “In his memoir, the realities of his life take on the qualities of a good docudrama, providing the back story to the development of a remarkable educational leader. His is ‘the examined life,’ filled with honesty, humor, and humility. While this is uniquely Charlie’s story, it is a story that will lift the hearts of many and inspire future generations of leaders.” —Betty J. Overton, Director, National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good




Fields of Gold and Sorrow


Book Description

"Fields of Gold and Sorrows" begins in the allied trenches in France during the peak of World War One. One of the American wounded lying in this particular trench is Mark Royal, an heir to one of the wealthiest families in the entire world. Why would such a wealthy individual be here in the first place? Only Mark Royal knew the answer to that question and might never reveal the answer as he lie critically wounded in a muddy ditch with little chance he would make it out alive. On a sprawling piece of Georgia land known as the "Royal Farm" Mark's only sister who had just buried their father, was about to get word of another tragedy, with the news of her severely wounded brother someplace in France. "I have to travel to France and bring Mark home," Catherine said to her father's grave. "But first, I have to go find Billy. I know he's down in Florida someplace and I'll find him. I'll bring him back here where he belongs. He can oversee the farm while I'm gone to France so I can bring our brother home. Dead or alive, he will be buried on this farm like the rest of our family. I swear to you Mama and Daddy," Catherine said to the two stone markers before her, "I will bring Mark home!" Catherine wiped the tears from her eyes and walked slowly to the awaiting car. And so begins the second book in 'THE RED COTTON FIELDS' trilogy, an epic tale surrounding three of the wealthiest families in the entire world carrying the reader through the dark days of WWI into the happier days of the roaring twenties followed by the traumatic times of the great depression ending on the eve of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the beginning of WWII. It is a story of love, war, tragedy, and the human will to survive. The saga continues in 'Fields of Gold and Sorrow'. Hope you enjoy.




From the Cotton Field to Capitol Hill


Book Description

We've all had cotton-field experiences. Your cotton-field experience may not have been like mine, but if you have been in a place or position where you said to yourself that there has to be a better way or that you wanted something different in life, you've had a cotton-field experience. Things look good from afar until you're placed directly in it. Once there, you see that what looked good from a distance isn't good up close. When you find yourself wondering why you're where you are at certain times in life, you're being equipped to qualify for your creative purpose in life. How you got there is hindsight, but how you get out answers and tells who you are and what you're made of. Come and walk with me through my journey from the cotton field to Capitol Hill.




From Cotton Fields to Board Rooms


Book Description

Moving from rural Georgia in 1959 with $35 saved from picking cotton and a high school diploma tucked away in his pocket, Joseph D. Greene embarked on a long journey in pursuit of success. His first stop landed him a job with an insurance company as a door-to-door salesman. After a long string of promotions, he became executive vice president/chief marketing officer and a member of the company's board of directors. He continued his education while enjoying an astounding fast-track career, earning a bachelor's and master's degree. The author's commitment to public service would lead to a series of firsts. He became the first African-American elected to public office in McDuffie County, Georgia when he was elected to the county's board of education. He would become the first African-American to sit on dozens of governing boards. He would eventually become chairman of Georgia's University System Board of Regents, presiding over the state's thirty-four colleges and universities. Today, in addition to teaching at Augusta State University, Greene serves as a director of the Georgia Council on Economic Education, conducts financial-planning workshops, and publishes articles on finance and economics. Joseph Greene's triumph over poverty and adversity will inspire you to look at your own life and ask if you've done everything you can to pursue your own dreams, be the best you can be, and give back to your community.




Hidden Fields


Book Description

Author Charles Ford continues to examine the philosophy of choice in the spirit of poetry by existentialism. Many themes are included, such as alienation, God, death, love, and so on. Here the list of themes is not exhausted. The roots of these choices are grounded in the will of the individual rather than his/her reason. He/she confronts problems that are seen in the world, so by his/her actions disclose human nature and reflect his/her latent dispositions. This is where inner choices must arise, so external choices may be seen as actions per se. When these state-of-affairs are closely examined, they disclosed aspects of the human condition. Experiences that revealed that we are human beings touching various realms of reality. For our inner/external choices say something about our makeup, we are wonderfully composed, and dynamically active from moment-to-moment of our existence. In Hidden Fields Book 3, Charles has written lots of poems in a personal way. He invites the readers to come along, and experience reality both mentally and through their senses. Every reader will soon discover something about him/ her with respect to choices that were made that he/she is fleshly human and is real. Charles wants to share and invite the reader into his home now.




How I Got Out of the Cotton Fields


Book Description

How I Got Out of the Cotton Field is easy to read--hard to put down. Dr. Raymon Crawford adroitly uses vivid language to weave a remarkable story of a triumphant spirit that is victorious despite heartbreaking challenges. His words paint colorful images that breathe life onto the pages of the book—we smell the aroma of the sweet potatoes roasted in the fireplace as we do the pungent odor of the outhouse—we close our eyes and feel the cool breeze created by the cracks in the walls of the un-insulated house and strain to see by the dim kerosene lamp—we taste Grandma Kelly's scrumptious pinto beans and cornbread—we take the journey with him. Raymon takes the reader on a vicarious journey to the cotton fields of North Carolina, many of us recall, as he wishes, our own cotton fields—we are inspired! We appreciate the fact that there is nothing subtle about the lessons Raymon wants us to glean—in true educator style he enumerates them and as a seasoned military leader, he “commands” us (with his riveting account) to read more, and more, until we reach the end of this compelling book. We learn the lessons. The book is much more than a simple chronology of the writer's journey from the cotton fields of North Carolina to the halls of academia—some of the most Prestigious American colleges and to the corridors of the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense—the Pentagon. It takes each reader on an enthralling trek into the depth of the human spirit.




The Quarters and the Fields


Book Description

The Quarters and the Fields offers a unique approach to the examination of slavery. Rather than focusing on slave work and family life on cotton plantations, Damian Pargas compares the practice of slavery among the other major agricultural cultures in the nineteenth-century South: tobacco, mixed grain, rice, and sugar cane. He reveals how the demands of different types of masters and crops influenced work patterns and habits, which in turn shaped slaves' family life. By presenting a broader view of the complex forces that shaped enslaved people's family lives, not only from outside but also from within, this book takes an inclusive approach to the slave agency debate. A comparative study that examines the importance of time and place for slave families, The Quarters and the Fields provides a means for understanding them as they truly were: dynamic social units that were formed and existed under different circumstances across time and space.




From the Cotton Fields to the State Capital


Book Description

This book is centered around the different aspects that happened in my life, situations I had to deal with beginning with my childhood, young adult life, family life, and the many challenges I faced when I became the first black, female firefighter in the state of Mississippi.