south

When thinking of the phrase “gold rush,” the words "California" or "Klondike" may come to mind. Well before prospectors traveled out west, many tried their luck in the mountains of the state of Georgia. Author David Williams sifts through many obscure resources and historical documents to paint a picture of the Georgia gold rush and its impact on the local Cherokee beginning in 1828 and throughout the subsequent decade.

The Hampton Album elegantly depicts the industrial and agricultural skills that were taught to students at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (later Hampton Institute in 1930, and finally Hampton University in 1984), the historically black school founded in Virginia in 1868 to educate freed slaves. The original images in this album were part of a series of photographs compiled by W.E.B Du Bois for the exhibition of African American life featured at the sensational world’s fair, the Paris Exposition of 1900.

The first edition of Peter Henderson’s Gardening for Profit was published in 1867, two years after the Civil War ended, and sold 100,000 copies. It’s considered the first book written on market gardening in the United States. Market gardening is defined as small scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers, from less than an acre to a few acres. In today's world, you may meet a market gardener at your local farmer's market. 

John Bigelow (1817-1911), born into a prominent New England family, was a newspaper writer and editor at the New-York Evening Post, under the leadership of William Cullen Bryant. An opponent of slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War, Bigelow travelled to Jamaica in 1850 to study the island’s economics following the abolition of slavery. His book soundly repudiated the assertion that freed slaves were incapable of self-governance and is still considered an authoritative analysis. It has been reprinted more than once in modern times, but this is the original publication. Our

The Southern Cross Expedition (otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition) holds a special place in history: it was the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, the first to ever winter on the Antarctic mainland, the first to visit the Great Ice Barrier in over 50 years, and a pioneer of Antarctic survival and travel techniques. Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole, even stated that the expedition’s work helped him and other explorers.

In Booker T. Washington’s landmark autobiography Up From Slavery, he gives one of the earliest accounts of the "Black Belt." This term was first used geographically for the band of dark, rich soil that runs through the Deep South.

This fascinating biography of celebrated linguist, Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner (1890-1972), appropriately written by a linguistics professor, features eight plates of black and white photos of Dr. Turner and his family from different stages of his life. The author, Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis, was Director of the Linguistics Program at SUNY New Paltz and was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in linguistics from NYU. Dr. Turner’s widow, Lois Turner Williams, contributed the introduction to the book. A Harvard graduate, Dr.

This is a new edition of Turner's original 1949 masterpiece, which was a seminal work in Afrocentric linguistics. Arranged like a dictionary, it has Gullah words on the left side of each page and the corresponding West African words on the right side. Gullah is a language spoken by the eponymous people descended from former slaves in the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. Pioneering linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner also uses this book to discuss the distinctively Gullah way of writing.

At less than 200 pages, this small paperback book is filled with black and white photographs depicting Gullah life. Gullahs are the descendants of slaves, specifically from the Lowcountry regions of the United States, including Georgia and South Carolina. The author is from South Carolina Gullah country. This book is about roots that can be used for healing, curses, good luck, bad luck, etc. The author’s dad was the county coroner, so he is familiar with death. Folk magic permeates Gullah culture, in a way very similar to voodoo.

Mrs. Sallie Ann Robinson is the Gullah Diva chef. Raised in South Carolina Gullah country on an island only accessible by boat, she is used to eating what can easily be farmed, hunted, or caught. At about one hundred fifty pages, this cookbook is divided into three sections: morning, noon, and night. They correspond with breakfast recipes, lunch recipes, and supper recipes. The beginning of the book has black and white photos of Gullah life. The Gullah are descendants of slaves in the Lowcountry regions of the United States, specifically South Carolina and Georgia.

Legend has it that in 1803 at St. Simons Island, Georgia, a group of 75 Igbo warriors from what is now Nigeria committed mass suicide by drowning rather than begin life in America as slaves. They survived the Middle Passage only to walk willingly into the sea wearing chains. A private land dispute prevents a memorial from being built at the site where this happened. This book was edited by Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Nation. This book features beautiful color paintings of Gullah life and history.

The authors use the discovery of discarded 19^th-century cadavers at the Medical College of Georgia to examine the use of African American bodies as a medical education tool. The book looks at the cultural implications of these practices as well as the resulting medical knowledge. This research brings added dimension to physical anthropology discoveries and historical medical findings.

The British National Antarctic Expedition (1901 – 1904), commonly called the Discovery Expedition, was a trailblazer of British exploration of the South Pole.  It launched the careers of leading figures of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, including Ernest Shackleton, who competed with Roald Amundsen to be the first person to reach the South Pole and died in a later Antarctic exploration in 1921.  This volume contains information discovered on that expedition, including tidal, pendulum, and magnetic observations; earthquakes and other geological movements; and aurorae.  Signif

Fifty years in chains: or, the life of an American slave is an abridged and unauthorized 1858 reprint of the 1836 Slavery in the United States: a narrative of the life and adventures of Charles Ball... . As one of the earliest slave narratives, its influence on later works is a well-established phenomenon.

This 1773 collection of poems was the only edition of Phillis Wheatley's work printed in her lifetime. Wheatley was first brought to the United States at age 7 or 8 to be sold into slavery. She was purchased by John Wheatley of Boston and taught to read and write. Having been tutored in the classics by Mrs. Wheatley, Wheatley began to write poetry herself and became well-known for it in Boston's domestic circles. A trip to England in 1773 brought her under the patronage of the Countess of Huntingdon who arranged for this 1773 English edition of her poetry to be published.

On August 31, 1962, Fannie Lou Hamer rode a bus with 17 other African Americans from her hometown of Ruleville to Indianola, Mississippi to register to vote. She was refused her legal right to register. When she returned home, she was fired by her employer and her family was thrown off the land where they had been sharecroppers. This injustice lit a fire inside Mrs. Hamer and put her on a path to becoming an important leader for the Civil Rights Movement in the South. This book tells the life story of this strong, indomitable woman who marched with Dr.

The historical Shaka (circa 1787-1828), the greatest of the Zulu kings, was a brave and skillful warrior who became king in 1817.  Through clever diplomacy, unusual military techniques, and strategic assassination, he controlled an empire of some 200,000 square miles. However, increasing military failure and, ultimately, his mother’s death left him a broken man. To mourn his mother, he imposed a nationwide grieving process so bizarre and destructive that his land was devastated and his people deeply traumatized.  In 1828, two of his half-brothers assassinated him.

This small book, furnished with black and white pencil drawings throughout, details life on a slave ship in vivid detail. It also shares stories of life in a slave castle in Africa prior to boarding the ship. It honestly describes the horrors that enslaved Africans were forced to endure during the Middle Passage crossing from Africa to the New World. Two million kidnapped Africans who were transported across the Atlantic Ocean died during the Middle Passage. Those who survived were delivered into the hands of slavery. 

Samuel Woodworth Cozzens (1834-1878) was a lawyer, and for a time United States district judge of Arizona. His published works include The Marvellous Country (Boston, 1876), The Young Trail-Hunters series, and Nobody's Husband (1878).  He travelled in Arizona during a relatively calm period of Apache activity, though he writes about several bloody episodes in the book. He met various prominent Arizonans such as the Penningtons on their way to Southern Arizona. and the legendary chief of the Chokonens, Cochise.