xxviii, 664 p. : ill., genealogical tables ; 24 cm.
Notes
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
African American Resources at Lancaster County Historical Society.
Summary
"Herbert G. Gutman uses quantitative records from the United States census intermixed with qualitative materials such as letters slaves wrote each other, testimony given to Government Commissions, and observations of foreign travelers to assure us that the black family was never disorganized by slavery. He aptly refutes the theory that the slave experience resulted in broken black families. He insists that the black family has always been an effective means for transmitting a black cultural heritage...The volume was stimulated by the public and academic controversy surrounding Daniel P. Moynihan's The Negro Family in America: The Case for National Actions (1965). Moynihan argued that American blacks were caught in a "tangle of pathology" resulting from the deterioration of the black family." [from Endnotes.com]
In: Pennsylvania Heritage, v. 4, no. 1 (December 1977).
Summary
"The emergence of Black churches at the beginning of the nineteenth century was crucial to the survival of Black people in Pennsylvania and in the North because it provided two key resources. First, it provided a sense of meaning and destiny grounded in hope. Secondly, the Black church provided the institutional base for the economic, social, and political struggle of Blacks, including the struggle to eliminate slavery and all forms of racism. For Blacks throughout the nineteenth century, religion was both an instrument of protest and a source of relief. " [from the article]
"Amish farmer in Lancaster County, PA, remembers the depression and talks about the history of farming in America, concentrating on the changes which have taken place in rural life over the past fifty or more years. This is a book filled with colorful anecdotes, thoughtful observations, and homespun wisdom." The author "also discusses the influences of the outside world which the Amish farmer must continually face and offers insights into how they continue to preserve their way of life." [from the dust jacket]
