Unloose my heart : a personal reckoning with the twisted roots of my southern family tree
(Book)

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Published
Tuscaloosa : The University of Alabama Press, [2023].
ISBN
0817321454, 9780817321451
Physical Desc
266 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Status
Adult Nonfiction (3rd floor)
NF 976.1 HERMAN 2023
1 available

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Published
Tuscaloosa : The University of Alabama Press, [2023].
Format
Book
Language
English
ISBN
0817321454, 9780817321451

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description
"A deeply personal memoir that unearths a family history of racism, slaveholding, and trauma as well as love and sparks of delight. Marcia Herman's family moved to Birmingham in 1946, when she was five years old, and settled in the steel-making city dense with smog and a rigid apartheid system. Marcia, a shy only child, struggled to fit in and understand this world, shadowed as it was by her mother's proud antebellum heritage. In 1966, weary of Alabama's toxic culture, Marcia and her young family left Birmingham and built a life in North Carolina. Later in life, Herman-Giddens resumed a search to find out what she did not know about her family history. Unloose My Heart interweaves the story of her youth and coming of age in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement together with this quest to understand exactly who and what her maternal ancestors were and her obligations as a white woman within a broader sense of American family. More than a memoir set against the backdrop of Jim Crow and the civil rights struggle, this is the work of a woman of conscience writing in the twenty-first century. Haunted by the past, Unloose My Heart is a journey of exploration and discovery, full of angst, sorrow, and yearning. Unearthing her forebears' centuries-long embrace of plantation slavery, Herman-Giddens dug deeply to parse the arrogance and cruelty necessary to be a slaveholder and the trauma and fear that ripple out in its wake. All this forced her to scrutinize the impact of this legacy in her life, as well as her debt to the enslaved people who suffered and were exploited at her ancestors' hands. But she also discovers lost connections, new cousins and friends, unexpected joys, and, eventually, a measure of peace in the process. With heartbreak, moments of grace, and an enduring sense of love, Unloose My Heart shines a light in the darkness and provides a model for a heartfelt reckoning with American history"--,Provided by publisher.
Action
cc,2023-02-03,JV

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Herman-Giddens, M. (2023). Unloose my heart: a personal reckoning with the twisted roots of my southern family tree . The University of Alabama Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Herman-Giddens, Marcia. 2023. Unloose My Heart: A Personal Reckoning With the Twisted Roots of My Southern Family Tree. The University of Alabama Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Herman-Giddens, Marcia. Unloose My Heart: A Personal Reckoning With the Twisted Roots of My Southern Family Tree The University of Alabama Press, 2023.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Herman-Giddens, Marcia. Unloose My Heart: A Personal Reckoning With the Twisted Roots of My Southern Family Tree The University of Alabama Press, 2023.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.