Bush Books

This book is about the role of black women in resistance to slavery in the British Carribean.

The author writes that life in the British Carribean was particularly savage; planters were so busy driving their slaves to make a profit that they didn't have time to formulate any paternalist ideology as happened with slave-owners in the American South. Some of the examples of the evidence presented here is given below.

She notes a large outcry by planters in Trinidad in 1823 when the whipping of female slaves was banned. The planters argued that it was the only effective device for specifically keeping female slaves in line. "One colonial office official stated that female slaves 'more frequently merited punishment than males.'"

She quotes accounts from several planters about the particular insolence of domestic female slaves. Such domestics were often in a worse position than fieldhands for they were under much closer scrutiny of masters and vulnerable to the latter's sexual lecheries and subsequent raging jealousies of the master's wife. Even with benevolent masters as lovers, the slave women would manipulate and steal from them. Such manipulation and stealing by all slaves was seen as evidence of being inherent traits among Africans by people too stupid to comprehend that the slaves might be asserting their own individuality and freedom by this act.

She quotes an account from testimony before the House of Commons in 1790 by one Henry Coor who reported that the owner of a Jamaican plantation where he stayed one night nailed the ear of a domestic slave to a tree post because she had broken a plate. The slave in the morning was found to have wrenched her ear out of this imprisonment and when found was severely whipped. She quotes an account from a Dr. John Williamson who related the story of a slave giving birth after having been confined in the stocks and then dying of a fever.

She quotes accounts from estates owned by two London merchants, Thomas and William King. In one estate she quotes a punishment book that of the 34 slaves punished in the first six months of 1827, 21 were women. She quotes a number of accounts of individual insubordination on an estate of the Kings in what is now Guiana in South America. Even though a slave named Clarrissa had her punishment increased from 12 hours of solitary confinement to 60 hours chained in the stockade, her insubordination did not decrease, writes the author.

She quotes accounts from a liberal planter named Monk Lewis who reported a scene of insubordination at his place where female slaves affected a work slowdown. When an overseer demanded that the women do their duty, one of the latter ran at the former and tried to strangle him. Lewis is quoted on reports of white overseers kicking pregnant black women in their bellies and thereby damaging the child or the mother.

Slave-owners began to enact legislation for their own benefit to ameliorate the harsh treatment of black women, for with slave importation being banned, they were concerned about slave labor not destroying the fertility of women. They also were under pressure from abolitionists. Black women generally received solitary confinement or being chained up in the stocks as opposed to the whippings still delivered on black men. Though the whip on women was still being used. The author quotes an account from a plantation in Grenada in 1823 of a female slave being whipped and again apparently another female being whipped ten years later for destroying sugar canes and "general neglect of duty." She quotes an account from this time of female slave at the plantation of Mrs. Carrie Carmicheal who colored her tongue a different color each check-up to make it seem like she was ill but then her tongue was whipe cleaned to reveal that she had been faking illness to avoid work and she was thus flogged.

She gives accounts of slave women being involved in many rebellions. There is the Jamaican maroon leader Nanny in the 1730's and "Cubah," leader of the slave revolt in Jamaica in 1760. She quotes an account from a rebellion in Surinam in 1730 where 8 of the 11 executed for it were women. Six of the females were "broken alive on the rack" and the other two, youngsters, were decapitated but they had such nerve in facing these atrocities that they "did not utter a sigh." She quotes an account from a male slave under interrogation that the only major uprising on Barbados, which took place in 1816, was formented by a woman She states that from contemporary accounts, women played a big role in the mob actions to protest poor working conditions in St. Kitts in 1834 druing the brief "apprenticeship." She "transition" to emancipation. There were two women in the group of sixteen sentenced for sedition and mutiny in this incident. She quotes an account from an English official during the great uprising of 20,000 slaves in Jamaica in 1831 that women were heavily involved as guides for rebels, as provocateurs to try to cause harm to British forces, and so on.

She gives accounts of how black women were feared because of their knowledge of Obeah herbal formulas that could poison whites and their leadership in African religious ceremonies which could be occasions for plotting rebellion.

She talks alot about the sexual mores of slave women. The planters propagated the notion that black women were inherently inclined towards promiscuity. Contemporary abolitionists agreed that slave women were promiscuous, only arguing that the degradation of slavery made them that way. She goes through an analysis of West African and slave sexual and marriage customs. Many African socities seem to have had a custom of "trial marriage" and divorce was relatively easy to obtain. In marooon communities, according to the author, young women were accorded something like "coming out" parties perhaps similar to those for aristocratic girls in Europe. The author quotes a Barbados parliament report to the House of Commons in 1789 that the black women there were very gentle and virtous. She quotes a Jamaican slave doctor who estimated that black men were no more promiscuous then men in England.....The author concludes that most slave families were monogamous, with strong retention of African extended family structures despite the threat of enforced separation through sales. Polygamy was rather minor and according to accounts, the first wives in such relationships obtained almost equal status with the husbands. She quotes slave-owners accounts of the generous and happy relations among slaves.

She explores the evidence that the low fertility rate among slaves in the West Indies was due to black women killing their babies within nine days after birth or willing their own miscarriage.

The book gets exceedingly slow to read towards the end.....

I started reading this book with the fear that Friedenberg would start bashing particular Presidents based on their political affiliation, but I was glad to discover that he provides a critique of each leader without much bias to his own beliefs. While the tone of his narrative tends to side with the liberals, he nevertheless thoroughly scrutinizes each administration regardless of whether the leader was a republican or democrat. No president here was exempted from his criticisms. All were judged. His narratives contain numerous humorous anecdotes regarding the various presidents' personal and political follies. The information is also recent, ending with a look at the Clinton Administration and expressing some concluding remarks about what the Bush Administration might bring in the future. He focuses not only on each president's personal weaknesses, but he also connects these personal inadequacies to the president's national policies and the consequences of their failures.

His narrative is an easy read, and it is well-suited for the general public. It is not a concise academic analysis of political science and leadership. Rather, with its humor, wit, and sarcasm - this book serves more as a "wake-up call" by revealing to the public a side of the White House that is in many ways human and vulnerable to the machinations of human weaknesses and dark vices - such as immorality, corruption,greed, sexual scandals, racism, and ignorance. I mainly saw this book as a general read concerning politics, but because of the wonderful humor that it espoused, I simply could not put it down! Friedenberg's writing is crisp, vivid, smart, and funny. It was definitely a good read!

First off, there were only 1,050 of this book printed, of which only 1,000 were for sale...that's not many for as good of a book as it is. There are other editions of course, which definitely make it better for the reader. I was amazed when I opened the pages of this book. It's FULL of great old pictures and stories. It's also got a foreword in it by Noel Wien, a flying history-maker himself. The writing is wonderful as are the pictures...of old, old flyable and non-flyable aircraft used in Alaska. This is part of our history. The photos are old and interesting. There are pictures of airplanes that were wrecked, but the pilots walked out of them, unscathed; pictures of planes so laden with freight you wouldn't believe they could still lift off...yet they did. This is a great book about great men in a great place...buy it if you can find it, otherwise rush to your library and get it!

We got this as a gift the night before we left for Spain and it made the whole trip better. My wife read most of the stories on the plane on the way over and then I read them at the hotel. It truly made the trip so much more meaningful. And it helped us to figure out where we wanted to go and illuminated so much about the culture of the people of Spain. I have a much better sense of the culture and people of this wonderful country. It made the experience of our trip richer and deeper. If you're going to Spain, don't go without this book.

ABSOLUTELY get the book and let it speak for itself.

Simply Stunning photography and the text is very interesting. A delightful depiction of Africa!

My aunt Becky (Bjork) is the best lady in the whole world and I am a devoted fan of her writings. If you look at the dedication on this book, you will see that it goes out to me (Angela), my sisters, and my two cousins.

There are many, many books on the appointment of Supreme Court Justices, a number of which I have reviewed on Amazon. What makes this book unique in focus is that it does not examine confirmation battles in the Senate, but rather takes a step back and looks at how Presidents select the nominees that the Senate must confront. The author rejects at the outset that the primary factor working at this stage is "luck" interacting with the ideosyncratic character of Presidents. Rather, she believes that it is possible to identify key factors that play a role in the selection process, assign them a ranking of importance, and utilize this model to evaluate prospective nominees in the future. Yes, as a good political scientist (at William & Mary) the author does utilize some statistical tools and demonstrates some points through the use of charts. However, her discussion can be read with profit by the general reader (as well as professional students of the political process), and that is one of the many solid contributions of the volume.

How presidents since Hoover have been taking a strategic view of selecting nominees is one of the key points of discussion. Presidents want Justices who will implement their values and preferences; if they had their way, that would be the selection criterion right there. But of course there are other actors, such as the opposing political party, Congress, and interest groups that all have a say in the confirmation process, and therefore must be considered in the selection process to avoid rejected nominees. There is always that element of "uncertainty" that cautions presidents to think strategically. One of the most interesting topics is the author's discussion and "short lists" and their role. In an appendix the author has listed either actual or hypothesized short lists for every nomination since CJ Charles Evans Hughes.

Individual topics inlcude Congressional endorsements, the role of the White House staff versus the Department of Justice in pushing selections, and how presidents gather information about potential nominees. We come to understand why so many recent appointments have been of Court of Appeals judges. An interesting discussion focuses on how the institutionalized presidency may move the selection process partially out of the president's control. Finally, the author cogently discusses her model hypothesis factors, how she tested them, and the final results. Whether one is interested in models or not, the individual factors the author discusses greatly facilitate our understanding of the selection process. The book is supported by 9 pages of notes, an extremely helpful list of "works consulted, figures and charts. At under 200 pages, there is a tremendous amount of insight and helpful information packed into this book. The reader cannot but better understand this sometimes bizarre process after having read this fine analysis.

I am new to jumping horses, but a very experienced rider. My trainer introduced me to and loaned me her copy. I found it to be very helpful in teaching me excellent techniques to train the green horse (my interest is in field hunters and polo horses) and also to make me a better, more confident jumper. However, this is a reference work, even though small, and I need to return my trainer's copy to her. That I want to go purchase the book after I have read it tells you all you might need to know. Perhaps an experienced hunter/jumper might not need this book, but for the novice, I think it is excellent.

I wasn't sure what to expect of this book, but I enjoy short stories so I gave it a shot. The writing was thought provoking and even a bit shocking at times, but they were "real" stories about love, relationships and troubled youth. The stories are rich in detail and left me wanting to know more about the characters. My heart ached for many of the girls and some of them made me laugh out loud. I enjoyed Up Island, Pink Room, Chicken Shack and Maternity Benefits. I loved the book and if a little colourful language and colourful characters don't bother you, you'll love it too.

Jenn Farrell knows how to tell a story.