Category Archives: Uncategorized

On the surface, transcribing appears to be easy work. It is not. Difficulty exists, at times, in reading the handwritten information recorded by the enumerator. Beyond the handwriting, the names are not always familiar because some of them or very … Continue reading →

Sounds funny, but Julie Beauvais and I had a grand time wandering through Maplewood Cemetery, in search of Durham’s history. Thanks to the Durham County Register of Deeds office (Sharon Davis) for showing me how to look up land deals … Continue reading →

Two main points impress me when reading Pauli Murray’s Proud Shoes. One impression: before and after the Civil War, the luck of having already been born free in the North, granted freedom in the South or born into an aristocratic … Continue reading →

Some of Charlotte’s early business practices still work today. One thing we can see from Hanchett’s Sorting Out the New South City, is that Charlotte was actually ahead of her time, in some respects. “Mixed Use” of land is a … Continue reading →

The search for secondary sources to support my paper on Richard Fitzgerald and his particular ability to succeed as a black man in the New South, immediately after Reconstruction, has been interesting and fruitful. Primary sources are a bit more … Continue reading →

To actually touch letters written by someone in the 1700’s or 1800’s is special and goes beyond reading about the letter in a book. Also each item has the chance to spark or support an idea. On Monday night, in Special … Continue reading →

The common theme shared by Ayers and Ownby is the power and influence of the general stores and the railroads on the lives of all Southerners. According to both writers, the general store dictated: 1) what you might see of the world through the … Continue reading →

Ayers overall message about this time during Southern transition is the amount of frustration with the lack of progress and prosperity for the majority of southerners, both black and white. The large percentage of black and white voters were controlled … Continue reading →