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A review by readclever
The Sweet Hell Inside by Edwina Harleston Whitlock, Edward Ball
5.0
I picked up the book because I enjoy history. I enjoy learning information that was unavailable otherwise. And The Sweet Hell Inside offered a deeper look into American life for African-Americans between Reconstruction through the 1960s. Life is a collection of experiences and the Harlestons seemed to be front and center for the Jim Crow era.
Investigative and in depth, the book deals with colorism within the family as well as the push by white America. Beginning the story of their family line with slavery and the power imbalance of that relationship until the Watts riots of the 1960s opens doors on how different life in the South was from the rest of the nation. As more African-Americans migrated from the South following the Union withdrawal in the 1870s and the end of the WWI, South Carolinian impact can't be denied.
One thing I wish the book had included was a little more information on the social/economic/cultural impact from those who escaped the Jenkins' Orphanage, to tie in the different pathways of color in the Harleston line. But it's a minor compliment on the whole. What I learned can be unjustly be boiled down to this: the 1920s and Jazz Age lay their foundation at the hands of scholars and vagrants alike, all looking for a piece of the foreseen future.
Tragedy and heartbreak are a way of life during the Jim Crow era, of families split for long periods of time while searching for an advancement in social ranks. Before social media and even correspondence school, families were broken apart in order to try and hold on to the bigger picture. Edwina, aka Gussie, tells the story of black bourgeoisie "accustomed to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and can stand things more than you-all" whites.
Investigative and in depth, the book deals with colorism within the family as well as the push by white America. Beginning the story of their family line with slavery and the power imbalance of that relationship until the Watts riots of the 1960s opens doors on how different life in the South was from the rest of the nation. As more African-Americans migrated from the South following the Union withdrawal in the 1870s and the end of the WWI, South Carolinian impact can't be denied.
One thing I wish the book had included was a little more information on the social/economic/cultural impact from those who escaped the Jenkins' Orphanage, to tie in the different pathways of color in the Harleston line. But it's a minor compliment on the whole. What I learned can be unjustly be boiled down to this: the 1920s and Jazz Age lay their foundation at the hands of scholars and vagrants alike, all looking for a piece of the foreseen future.
Tragedy and heartbreak are a way of life during the Jim Crow era, of families split for long periods of time while searching for an advancement in social ranks. Before social media and even correspondence school, families were broken apart in order to try and hold on to the bigger picture. Edwina, aka Gussie, tells the story of black bourgeoisie "accustomed to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and can stand things more than you-all" whites.