The Pursuit of a Dream (Banner Books) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Pursuit of a Dream (Banner Books)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Pursuit of a Dream (Banner Books). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Pursuit of a Dream (Banner Books) ReviewJoseph Davis, the older brother of Jefferson Davis, sold the Hurricane Plantation south of Vicksburg to Ben Montgomery...his black plantation manager because he was trained and educated by Joseph and he felt he was the best man to make a success of the farm. His choice was good but floods over ran the farm from the Mississippi River. This meant that the Montgomery family could not make payment. This resulted in a long legal battle after Joseph's death by the Davis family...and the courts finally gave the land to Joseph's great grand daughter (born out of wedlock). Once the author accumulated all this information to write this book...she realized what a remarkable person Joseph Davis was and she wrote the book about Joseph Davis...giving us another snapshot of life in Pre-War Mississippi.The Pursuit of a Dream (Banner Books) Overview
This fascinating history set in the Reconstruction South is a testament to African-American resilience, fortitude, and independence. It tells of three attempts to create an ideal community on the river bottom lands at Davis Bend south of Vicksburg. There Joseph Davis's effort to establish a cooperative community among the slaves on his plantation was doomed to fail as long as they remained in bondage. During the Civil War the Yankees tried with limited success to organize the freedmen into a model community without trusting them to manage their own affairs. After the war the intrepid Benjamin Montgomery and his family bought the land from Davis and established a very prosperous colony of their fellow freedmen. Their success at Davis Bend occurred when blacks were accorded the opportunity to pursue the American dream relatively free from the discrimination that prevailed in most of society. It is a story worthy of celebration. Janet Hermann writes here of two men--Joseph Davis, the slaveholder and brother of the president of the Confederacy, and Benjamin Montgomery, an educated freedman. In 1866 Montgomery began the experiment at Davis Bend. The Pursuit of a Dream, published in 1981, received the Robert F. Kennedy Award, the McLemore Prize of the Mississippi Historical Society, and the Silver Medal of the Commonwealth Club of California. "Historical writing at its best . . . her research is impressive and is presented in balanced, ironic prose." --David Bradley, New York Times Book Review "A marvelous story for all readers with a taste for the ironies, the ambiguities, and the surprises of history." --C. Vann Woodward
Janet Sharp Hermann, a freelance writer and historian, is the author of Joseph E. Davis: Pioneer Patriarch (University Press of Mississippi).

Want to learn more information about The Pursuit of a Dream (Banner Books)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now