Beatrice's Ledger : Coming of Age in the Jim Crow South / Ruth R. Martin and Vivian B. Martin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Martin, Ruth R., author.

Martin, Vivian B., 1959- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Martin, Ruth R.

Martin, Ruth R--Family.

Sharecroppers--South Carolina--History--20th century--Biography.

Sharecroppers.

African Americans--South Carolina--Social conditions--20th century--Biography.

African Americans.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (150 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Columbia, South Carolina : University of South Carolina Press, [2022]

Summary:

"Ruth remembers the day the sheriff pulled up in front of her family's home with a white neighbor claiming Ruth's father owed her recently deceased husband money. It was 1940 in Jim Crow South Carolina, and even at the age of 10, Ruth knew a Black person's word wasn't trusted. But her father remained calm as he waited on her mother's return from the house. She had retrieved a gray book, which she opened and handed to the sheriff. Satisfied by what he saw, the sheriff and the woman left. Ruth didn't know what was in that book, but she knew it was important.In Beatrice's Ledger, Ruth R. Martin brings to life the stories behind her mother's entries in that well-worn ledger, detailing her family's daily struggle to survive. Enriched by public records and interviews with people still living in Smoaks, South Carolina, Martin weaves history, humor, and poignant reflection into a compelling narrative about the power of family and the place we call home"-- Provided by publisher.

"Beatrice's Ledger is a story about family, memory, and the power of homeplace. (Reminds me of Mildred Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - 1976 / Logan Family Saga series and Mamie Garvin Fields, Lemon Swamp and Other Places: A Carolina Memoir - Free Press, 1983). Ruth Martin grew up in Smoaks, South Carolina, a small town in Colleton County. It was once the land of plantations, slavery, and cotton. By the time Ruth Martin was born in 1930 many of the plantations were gone and slavery had ended, but the cotton remained. Her family made a living working the land as sharecroppers. Her father supplemented the family income working as a supervisor at a local grist and sawmill. They worked hard, but did not own the land and Martin offers vivid descriptions of the sometimes perilous existence of a Black family living in the Jim Crow South. But there was joy as well as hardship and readers will be drawn into the story of life in Smoaks. Martin brings to life the place and its citizens with colorful prose and careful reconstruction. In addition to her own memory, Martin conducted numerous interviews and tracked down deeds and land records to confirm her recollections. Among the documents that she relies upon is a ledger that her mother, Beatrice, kept and that survives as a family heirloom. Well-worn and with some pages missing -- having been torn out and repurposed as grocery lists and scrap paper through the years -- the ledger serves as a starting and ending point to the book. It recounts the triumphs and travails of one Black family in the rural twentieth century South. Written in a lively style, Beatrice's Ledger is reminiscent of the best of southern memoir, combining history, storytelling, and family folklore to tell a compelling narrative of growing up as a Black girl in the Jim Crow South. Martin, a trained social worker and skilled practitioner of oral history, gathers stories from many former residents of Smoaks, both white and Black, in order to inform her narrative. The book offers a window into the day-to-day lives of African Americans living in the early twentieth-century South. Infused with history, humor, and a southerner's ability to tell a good story, readers of all types will find something to enjoy about this first-hand account"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Front Matter

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments / Ruth R. Martin

Prologue

Beatrices Ledger

Smoaks

Mama at the Pole House

Joe Robinsons Land

Meeting the Drains

School Days

Lovely Hill

The Root Doctor

Aunt Anna

Memory of a Fire

The Shed

Up and down the Road

The German Pow Occupation

Sex and the Country

Getting Beyond Ninth Grade

High School Graduate

Tuskegee

The One

Finding Miss Barnes

The (Possibly) Tragic Fate of Mr. Six-Toe

Something Good and Something Right

Never to Come Up Anymore

Epilogue

Postscript / Vivian B. Martin, Ruth R. Martin

Notes

Index

Back Matter

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781643363165

1643363166

OCLC:

1302331494