This is a bitter-sweet book that should go far in convincing people of all races of the existence of a cadre of educated and capable progressive Black people in South Carolina during reconstruction. The sadness is that the white power structure extinguished this at the end of Reconstuction with a segregated Jim Crow society unseen before in South Carolina. This book will go far to extinguish the myth of crude unschooled Blacks manipulated by northern carpetbaggers to "rule" the state after the Civil War. The African-Americans who were able to gain a foothold on the American Dream during this period were to become the nucleus of the civil rights movemement in the US. Given a less pig headed white power structure, racial tensions of the past century might have been avoided.

Anyone living in the Southeast (Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee) will find this travel book to be a practical and useful tool. The author, Eleanor Berman, pairs seasonal activities and local attractions with various locales. For me, this opened my eyes to the many enjoyable short trips my family and I can take without going too far from home. The book contains telephone numbers, driving directions and suggestions for accommodations and restaurants that I likely would never have discovered on my own. My family and I have stayed in several of the book's recommended bed and breakfasts and have been delighted. I keep this book handy to refer to for travel ideas. I reccommend it highly as a thorough and "user friendly" guide to travel in the Southeast.

This is one of the best Civil War novels I've ever read. I couldn't wait to finish it

Buck Paysour has fished North Carolina's waters from more than fifty years and in Bass Fishing In North Carolina draws upon his considerable experience and expertise to share techniques and "insider" information on catching the elusive largemouth and smallmouth bass. In addition to his own techniques, Buck shares his interviews with many of the state's best bass fishermen and professional guides. Any dedicated angler seeking to fish the waters of North Carolina and wanting to know where the fish are to be found, where to put their boat, which lures produce the most successful results would do well to begin by a thorough reading of Buck Paysour's superb compendium of information and advice, Bass Fishing In North Carolina. Also highly recommended for the angler's bookshelf is Buck Paysour's earlier book, Fly Fishing In North Carolina.

Best Companions is a 532 page compendium of letters between Eliza Middleton Fisher and her mother, Mary Hering Middleton. The letters bridge Charleston, Philadelphia to Newport, through the years 1839-1846. This seven-year conversation, encompassed in some 375 letters, connect the cultural and social life of the North and the South even as other forces conspired to tear America part from within. Enhanced with an Epilogue, extentensive bibliography, and comprehensive index, Best Companions is intimately showcases the joys, sorrows, frustrations, and widespread opinions of a close mother and daughter. Best Companions is not to be missed!

I picked up this cookbook on a trip to Charleston, and I find myself using it over and over. The recipes are drawn from many different church, community and locally-published cookbooks throughout South Carolina. The result really gives one a flavor of the state. I have tried many recipes and haven't had any failures yet.

I loved the seafood when I was visiting the state, and the seafood recipes in this book are great. I especially like the crab stew and the Lowcountry Fettucine (fettucine with a variety of seafood mixed in).

The non-seafood recipes are also wonderful. Parmesan Picnic chicken travels well, just as the book promises, and the Stuffed Shells Florentine has become a favorite with almost everyone in my extended family. I also especially enjoyed the recipe for the authentic Lady Baltimore Cake - time-consuming but delicious.

As with the other books in this series that I have tried, I would recommend this one highly!

Opens a world that most people don't even know about. Black slaveowners?  Most people are shocked and amazed to discover that there were black slaveowners. While always an anomaly, there were 10,000 to 12,000 black slaveowners in 1860, though many of them had purchased family members and continued to hold them in slavery because their state of residence did not allow masters to free slaves.

The exact breakdown of black slaveowners by category does not yet exist; for some insights into the life of at least one black master, Johnson and Roark's book provides a fairly detailed examination of what are necessarily incomplete records. William Ellison was born a slave in 1790, and developed a skill as a master craftsman, a cotton gin maker. He bought himself out of slavery, apparently with the active encouragement of his master -- who may well have been his father -- and became, in turn, a slaveowner himself -- and wealthier than 90% of white Southerners. Indeed, he owned more slaves "than all but the richest white planters." [pp. xi-xii]

As it examines the status of William Ellison, his relationships with white masters, and the social milleu of Charleston, this book also paints an interesting portrait of the three race system of South Carolina life. While whites considered free mulattoes (those of mixed white and black race) in the same category as pure blacks, the mulattoes insisted on keeping distinctions, one of their "attempts to shape social reality to their sense of themselves as an intermediate class, to give repeated public demonstrations that their social niche had clear racial boundaries and that their racial niche had equally crisp social limits." [pp. 225-226]

The chapter "Masters or Slaves" wanders far afield from William Ellison and his family, but provides some interesting insights into the manner in which working class free whites regarded free blacks and slaves who directly contracted their labor (sometimes with little or no involvement by their masters) as a threat to their economic status, and vigorously sought laws on the eve of the Civil War to prevent blacks from competing on an equal basis in what was essentially a color-blind, free market economy.

Perhaps the most startling part of the book is the extent to which the Ellison family identified with the slaveowners of the Confederacy. His sons invested heavily in Confederate war bonds, and his grandson John Wilson Buckner was allowed to enlist in the South Carolina Artillery because of "personal associations and a sterling family reputation...." [pp. 305-307] Of course, once the Civil War was over, this identification with their class, not their race, paid bitter rewards. The bonds were defaulted, and the Ellison family slaves freed. Without slaves, and in the subsequent depression, the Ellison family's land became worth far less -- broken as much as many white slaveowners.

Well-written, filled with fascinating and at times astonishing information. Aimed at a well-educated and scholarly audience.

I first read "Bobby Rex" some 12 years ago at the tender age of 12. At that time, it was one of the first non-classic grown-up books I'd read, and I found myself unable to believe that someone could capture such simplicity and depth in single sentences. I loved the book so much I even stole a copy of it from the local library (don't worry, i've more than payed for it in overdue fines throughout the years) because I couldn't stand the thought that someone else would check it out and never return it. But I digress... Why is it such a beautiful book? Because it speaks sweet, insightful and often hilarious volumes without falling all over itself the way so many writers do these days. It's the sort of book you read and then sit back and think, God, I could write that... because it's just like someone relating stories to you. Its the tale of a young girl, Pally Thompson, who over the course of 3 or 4 years discovers the truths and myths about those people with whom she surrounds herself. -- Marianne Gingher does an absolutely brilliant job of painting smalltown lives and loves during the latter part of the 1950's. She treats her characters, all of them (even those who may not deserve it) with respect and dignity. Never sacrificing even a single word, she allows her characters to grow and breathe and, perhaps most importantly, to learn. "Bobby Rex" is a novel of discovery. Rich and honest and oozing with charm.

A thoughtful and sensitive book about the meeting of two cultures and eras. Zarah, a savey teenager from New York, learns about an entirely different way of life when she visits her grandmother on an island off of the coast of South Carolina. Ms. Seabrooke skillfully deals with the dilemma created when Zarah drops back into an era of old southern mentality. She is able to treat her characters with sensitivity and dignity while telling this story of learning to bridge the generations between Zarah and her grandmother.