Awards

• Winner of <DIV>Chicago Folklore Prize, American Folklore Society, 2016<BR /> Wayland D. Hand Prize, History and Folklore Section of the American Folklore Societ 2016
• Winner of <DIV>Chicago Folklore Prize, American Folklore Society, 2016<BR /> Wayland D. Hand Prize, History and Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society, 2016<BR /> A <I>Choice</I> Outstanding Academic Title, 2016</DIV> 2016

Overview

A daughter of freed African American slaves, Daisy Turner became a living repository of history. The family narrative entrusted to her--""a well-polished artifact, an heirloom that had been carefully preserved""--began among the Yoruba in West Africa and continued with her own century and more of life.   In 1983, folklorist Jane Beck began a series of interviews with Turner, then one hundred years old and still relating four generations of oral history. Beck uses Turner's storytelling to build the Turner family saga, using at its foundation the oft-repeated touchstone stories at the heart of their experiences: the abduction into slavery of Turner's African ancestors; Daisy's father Alec Turner learning to read; his return as a soldier to his former plantation to kill his former overseer; and Daisy's childhood stand against racism. Other stories re-create enslavement and her father's life in Vermont--in short, the range of life events large and small, transmitted by means so alive as to include voice inflections. Beck, at the same time, weaves in historical research and offers a folklorist's perspective on oral history and the hazards--and uses--of memory. Publication of this book is supported by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the L. J. and Mary C. Skaggs Folklore Fund.

Full Product Details

9780252039232

Table of Contents

Reviews

I met and filmed Daisy Turner for my Civil War series and was struck by her vibrancy and the power of her voice. How fortunate we are that Jane Beck was able to both record and authenticate her family narrative. It allows us new insights into the experience of four generations of a family who maintained their identity and self-respect in spite of the dehumanizing circumstances they lived through. What an engaging and powerful story! --Ken Burns, filmmaker

Folklorist Beck's story of the Turner family's transition from freedom to slavery to freedom again is a marvel of scholarly storytelling. . . . An engrossing American tale. -- Publisher's Weekly Turner's recollections are interwoven with Beck's research to provide an astonishing saga of a single African American family, an example of the oral history tradition across two continents, and an amazing woman who bridges generations of her family. -- Booklist

This amazing true story should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand American history. Jane Beck's seminal book, built upon decades of rare historical research combined with rich oral narratives, reads like a vivid novel. --Ronne Hartfield, author of Another Way Home: The Tangled Roots of Race in One Chicago Family

Author Information

Jane C. Beck is Executive Director Emeritus and Founder of the Vermont Folklife Center. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Center for Vermont Research at the University of Vermont in 2011.

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