{"id":15021,"date":"2025-01-23T15:42:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T15:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=15021"},"modified":"2025-01-23T15:42:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T15:42:59","slug":"slavery-after-slavery-revealing-the-legacy-of-forced-child-apprenticeships-on-black-families-from-emancipation-to-the-present-by-mary-frances-berry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/23\/slavery-after-slavery-revealing-the-legacy-of-forced-child-apprenticeships-on-black-families-from-emancipation-to-the-present-by-mary-frances-berry\/","title":{"rendered":"Slavery After Slavery: Revealing the Legacy of Forced Child Apprenticeships on Black Families, from Emancipation to the Present by Mary Frances Berry"},"content":{"rendered":"

c.2024,Beacon Press $27.95 184 pages<\/em>
\nBy Terri Schlichenmeyer<\/em>
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/em><\/p>\n

Your kids will have a better life than you had.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll make sure of it, saving for their education, demanding excellence from them, requiring discipline, and offering support for their dreams and desires. Their success is your dream and, as parents did in the new book \u201cSlavery after Slavery\u201d by Mary Frances Berry, you\u2019ll fight to see that it happens.<\/p>\n

In the years after the end of the Civil War, some Southern former slaveowners refused to accept that slavery was over, and the courts often sided with them. In particular, under habeas corpus, Black children were sometimes taken from their parents and placed into an \u201capprenticeship,\u201d which was another word for \u201cslavery\u201d then. Berry estimates that more than two million 10-to-19-year-olds were trapped in this way for years.<\/p>\n

Here, she shares the stories of many of them.<\/p>\n

In late 1865, Nathan and Jenny Cox lost their five children to their former \u201cmaster,\u201d who also took seven other children by persuading a local magistrate to let him apprentice the kids. As time passed, some of the children took their former owner\u2019s last name as their own which, in effect, erased their family\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

When six-year-old Mary Cannon was in danger of being apprenticed, a white woman came to her defense. Ultimately, the courts sided with Mary\u2019s benefactor and the girl was returned to her parents to live on their former enslaver\u2019s plantation.<\/p>\n

Hepsey Saunders tried to leave her former owner\u2019s plantation, but he \u201crefused to let her take the children\u201d that were born when she was enslaved. Though the theft of her children happened in 1865, the story lingered over a span of decades.<\/p>\n

In most of the cases Berry cites, the families \u2013 with or without the return of their children \u2013 remained uneducated, unhealthy, and under discrimination. Imagine, she says, that these former slaves had had a chance to control their own lives. Imagine, she says, \u201cif these black people were permitted to pursue the American Dream\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

While it may seem that Slavery After Slavery<\/em> is a historical narrative, that\u2019s not all you\u2019ll get if you tackle this skinny book.<\/p>\n

When reading the stories inside here, readers may struggle to keep track of what\u2019s told. The accounts are a bit repetitious and each one packs a lot of names, legal decisions, court rulings, and places, some of which nearly require a law degree and all of which demand full attention. That can be overwhelming, unless you shut the door and avoid any distraction.<\/p>\n

Author Mary Frances Berry uses these stories to point out lasting damage done to many Black families, which is essential info for readers to ponder. She goes further to argue that what happened to the two million children is reason enough for reparations, which makes a good argument but it\u2019s sometimes misplaced inside the flow of this book.
\nStill, I will agree that the accounts Berry uncovered have been hidden too long, and shedding light on them is essential. What\u2019s in \u201c<\/p>\n

Slavery After Slavery<\/em> educates, and could help make conversations better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

c.2024,Beacon Press $27.95 184 pages By Terri Schlichenmeyer The Truth Contributor Your kids will have a better life than you had. You\u2019ll make sure of it, saving for their education, demanding excellence from them, requiring discipline, and offering support for their dreams and desires. Their success is your dream and, as parents did in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15022,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[20],"class_list":["post-15021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15023,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15021\/revisions\/15023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15021"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=15021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}