From Calabar to Carter’s Grove: The History of a Virginia Slave Community

The paper edition of a work first published in 1997, this history had its genesis in what began as a routine lecture on plantation agriculture. Walsh, a historian with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, was trying to help interpreters develop their presentations about a reconstructed 1750s slave quarter at Carter’s Grove, VA. But the historical record revealed little about the slaves’ lives beyond numbers, names, and ages. Walsh, digging deeper, found that while the disparate pieces of evidence said little about blacks as individuals, they could be made to divulge a rich and complex history of the Carter’s Grove slaves as a group. The links she followed stretch back to the 1660s and forward into the early 19th century. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)