Race and Identity

The Hottentot Venus

by Lucy Inglis January 14, 2013

Throughout Georgian London there are many ‘freaks’, whose main source of income was displaying themselves: tall or strong women, tiny people, the prematurely aged (probably suffering from progeria) and ‘mer-people’. Sexual freaks such as bearded ladies or hermaphrodites were particularly popular. Anything exotic or ‘other’ caused queues to form in the street outside the chosen [...]

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Los Angeles Chinese Massacre, 1871

by Holly Tucker September 24, 2012

By Scott Zesch The word “massacre” usually brings to mind lonely American landscapes such as Wounded Knee, Mountain Meadows and Sand Creek—not a busy metropolis like Los Angeles. Yet that city’s first race riot, dating back all the way to 1871 and largely forgotten today, came to be known as the Los Angeles Chinese Massacre. [...]

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Old Photos and Mandolins: Sources of Inspiration

by Holly Tucker October 26, 2010

By Ann Weisgarber It started with a 1902 photograph of businessmen and cowboys, college students and cattle ranchers. Their suit jackets were buttoned, their white collars were starched, and each man had parted his hair in the center. They were The Bozeman Mandolin and Guitar Club, and when Dennis White saw the photo, he was [...]

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Jewish Confederate Saved by Talking Parrot

by Holly Tucker March 7, 2010

By Dara Horn The old American South ranks high on the historical list of institutionally bigoted societies – which is why most people are surprised to learn that the Confederacy’s Secretary of State, whose face was even featured on the Confederate two-dollar bill, was a Jewish man named Judah Benjamin. But what is even more [...]

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Easier not to know?

by Holly Tucker March 6, 2010

By C. S. Manegold ALMOST HALF a century ago, Martin Luther King Jr. captured a problem that still plagues us today. Cautioning his flock against the complacent embrace of incomplete knowledge, he warned: “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.’’ I have thought of those words often in [...]

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How do you Explain the Seemingly Unexplainable?

by Holly Tucker February 19, 2010

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Hendrik Cesars and the Tragedies of Race in South Africa

by Holly Tucker June 15, 2009

By Clifton Crais and Pamela Scully When we began researching our biography of Sara Baartman we thought we knew what we would find. Two white men brought Sara Baartman to 19th-century London, where she was put on show in Piccadilly. Every study, every bit of popular knowledge representing Sara Baartman’s life as the “Hottentot Venus,” [...]

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The Color of Pirating

by Holly Tucker April 30, 2009

By Peter T. Leeson Eighteenth-century pirate features, from skull-emblazed flags to wooden legs, pervade popular culture. One important pirate feature that doesn’t appear in most pop-culture treatments, however, is the fact that upward of a quarter of the average early 18th-century pirate crew was black. Historical evidence on the free vs. slave status of black [...]

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Historical Footprints

by Holly Tucker March 19, 2009

by Martha A. Sandweiss In Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line, I unravel the hidden life of Clarence King, the celebrated western American explorer, who crossed the color line from white to black to marry the woman he loved. For thirteen years, from his marriage in 1888 [...]

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PASSING STRANGE

by Holly Tucker March 17, 2009

By Holly Tucker Wonders & Marvels most often profiles history and historical fiction on pre-1800 topics. But Martha A. Sandweiss’ Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line is just too good to pass up. And it’s always a treat to help spread the word about well-written books by [...]

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Book of the Week: City of God

by Holly Tucker January 12, 2009

Up this week: Beverly Swerling’s City of God: A Novel of Passion and Wonder in Old New York. Beverly’s novels are spell-binding journeys into an era rich in history and intrigue. For a flavor of her work, take a peek at her latest book trailer. (Yes, there are such things as book trailers now!) This [...]

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