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Best regards, Andrew Stewart Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.msu.edu> > Date: April 26, 2017 at 10:31:24 AM EDT > To: h-rev...@h-net.msu.edu > Subject: H-Net Review [H-South]: Illingworth on Rothman, 'Beyond Freedom's > Reach: A Kidnapping in the Twilight of Slavery' > Reply-To: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.msu.edu> > > Adam Rothman. Beyond Freedom's Reach: A Kidnapping in the Twilight > of Slavery. Cambridge Harvard University Press, 2015. 288 pp. > $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-674-36812-5. > > Reviewed by James Illingworth (Department of History, University of > Maryland, College Park) > Published on H-South (April, 2017) > Commissioned by Caitlin Verboon > > An extraordinary drama played out in the courtrooms of New Orleans in > early 1865. Rose Herera, a Louisiana freedwoman, brought suit against > her former mistress, Mary De Hart, for kidnapping. Two years earlier, > De Hart had taken Herera's three oldest children on a steamer from > Union-occupied New Orleans to Havana, Cuba. There, they rejoined > their master, one of many Confederate sympathizers who had fled the > Crescent City for a port more hospitable to slavery. By the time Mary > De Hart returned to New Orleans in January of 1865, however, a new > state constitution had abolished slavery in Louisiana, and Rose > Herera was a free woman with powerful new allies. First, Herera > pursued her claims in the civilian courts, and, when that failed, in > the provost courts of the occupying army. Finally, after three years > apart, and thanks to the intervention of figures at the highest level > of the federal government, Rose Herera was reunited with her > children. > > Rose Herera's struggle to rescue her children is the subject of Adam > Rothman's _Beyond __Freedom's Reach: A Kidnapping in the Twilight of > Slavery_. This compact, lively book manages to be both an intimate > microhistory of one black family and a sweeping transnational account > of war, emancipation, and Reconstruction in the Deep South's largest > city and beyond. In it, Rothman uses Rose Herera's life and times to > illuminate crucial changes in the southern legal system during > Reconstruction, and, more importantly, to illustrate the challenges > and triumphs of African American family life in the age of > emancipation. > > Born a slave in rural Pointe Coupée Parish, Louisiana, in 1835, Rose > Herera grew up in the distinctive plantation regime of the lower > Mississippi Valley. By the 1830s, planters in Pointe Coupée had made > the transition from tobacco and indigo to cotton and sugar, and the > booming parish had a significant black majority. In the early 1850s, > Herera's owner sold his plantation and brought her and several other > slaves to New Orleans, a bustling metropolis of well over a hundred > thousand people. In the Crescent City, Herera was bought and sold > several times, eventually ending up in the possession of one James De > Hart, a dentist. In New Orleans she met and married George Herera, a > free man of color, and the couple had four children before the > outbreak of the Civil War. > > When the Civil War came and Union forces occupied New Orleans, James > De Hart fled to Cuba. The dentist's family tried to take Rose to join > him there, but she resisted, and ended up confined to the city jail. > Sick and imprisoned with her youngest child, an infant, Rose was > powerless to prevent the De Harts from sailing to Havana with her > three oldest children. She did not remain helpless for long, however. > The abolition of slavery, the presence of Union troops, and the > beginning of the political reconstruction of Louisiana created a > terrain on which Herera was able to press her claims as a free woman > and a mother. Although she was ultimately unsuccessful in both > civilian and provost courts, Herera's persistence caught the > attention of the military authorities who, in turn, alerted the > federal government. Through the intervention of Secretary of State > William Seward, the De Harts were eventually forced to send the > children home. > > In _Beyond Freedom's Reach_, Rothman faces the challenge of using > Rose Herera's life to illuminate major historical processes without > letting the drama of war and emancipation drown out the human > elements of her story. This challenge is particularly acute given > that Herera left very few written records for long stretches of her > life. It would have been all too easy for her story to become > submerged in the social history of Civil War-era Louisiana. In > general, however, Rothman succeeds admirably in striking the right > balance between narrating Herera's life and describing her times, and > there are only one or two moments where these elements seem > unbalanced. One wonders, for example, whether a multipage history of > dentistry in the antebellum United States was really necessary for > readers to understand Rose Herera's "lifeworld." Later in the book, > on the other hand, Rothman provides relatively little social > historical context for the time Herera's children spent in Cuba. > Further insight into the society the children encountered on their > Caribbean sojourn would have deepened the already impressive > transnational character of this story. > > _Beyond Freedom's Reach_ treads familiar ground in its account of > war, occupation, and emancipation in southern Louisiana, and > specialists in this region and period will find little to surprise > them here. Rothman's major contribution to this literature is to > demonstrate that narrating the lives of people like Rose Herera > "humanizes the history of slavery and emancipation in the United > States" (p. 5). Much like Michael Ross's _The Great New Orleans > Kidnapping Case _(2014), Rothman's book shows how the drama of a > single legal case can provide an exciting new way to tell the story > of the Civil War era in the Crescent City. Indeed, _Beyond Freedom's > Reach _tells us something important about the legal history of this > period. Rose Herera's experiences show that the law was not simply an > instrument of the oppression of the freedpeople in the years > following emancipation. While Herera was forced to navigate confused > and overlapping legal jurisdictions as well as the the hostility of > local authorities, she was nevertheless able to use the courts to > bring her family back together. > > Most importantly, perhaps, _Beyond Freedom's Reach_ is a valuable > addition to the literature on black kinship in the Civil War era. > Rothman successfully captures the complex ways in which these > tumultuous years impacted the families of freedpeople. Rose Herera's > experiences show that the chaos of war and emancipation had the > potential to tear black families apart: she lost her husband to > disease during the war, and very nearly lost custody of her children. > As a number of scholars have recently argued, such tragedies often > marred the end of slavery. But it would be a mistake to see _Beyond > Freedom's Reach _as contributing to a one-sided image of a "darker" > Civil War. Ultimately, Herera's success in recruiting powerful > allies, navigating an unfamiliar legal system, and reuniting her > family suggest that this was a period alive with emancipatory > possibilities. > > Citation: James Illingworth. Review of Rothman, Adam, _Beyond > Freedom's Reach: A Kidnapping in the Twilight of Slavery_. H-South, > H-Net Reviews. April, 2017. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=49122 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -- _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
