Catalog

Record Details

Catalog Search


Back To Results
Showing Item 7 of 13

Truevine : two brothers, a kidnapping, and a mother's quest : a true story of the Jim Crow South  Cover Image Book Book

Truevine : two brothers, a kidnapping, and a mother's quest : a true story of the Jim Crow South

Macy, Beth (author.).

Record details

  • ISBN: 0316337544
  • ISBN: 9780316337540
  • Physical Description: x, 420 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm
    print
  • Edition: First edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Little, Brown and Company, [2016]

Content descriptions

General Note:
Maps on lining papers.
Bibliography, etc. Note: Includes bibliographic references (pages 353-404) and index.
Formatted Contents Note: Prologue: I am the true vine -- Sit down and shut up -- White peoples is hateful -- And still the cry against us continues -- Your momma is dead -- Some serious secrets -- A paying proposition -- He who hustleth while he waiteth -- Comma, colored -- The prodigal sons -- Not one single, solitary, red penny -- Adultery's siamese twin -- Housekeeping! -- Practically imbeciles -- Very good old colored woman -- Wilbur and John -- God is good to me -- Epilogue: markers.
Summary, etc.: A true story of two albino African-American brothers who were kidnapped and displayed as circus freaks, and whose mother endured a decades-long struggle to find them and to get justice for her family. The year was 1899, and the old people told the story: the place, a sweltering tobacco community in the Jim Crow South called Truevine, where everyone they knew was either a former slave or a child or grandchild of slaves. Though the narrative of George and Willie Muse has been passed down for over a century, no writer has ever gotten this close to the beating heart of their story and its mysteries: Were they really kidnapped and put into servitude by the circus? How did their mother, a black maid toiling under the harsh restrictions of segregation, bring them home? And why, after getting there, would they ever want to go back? At the height of their fame, the Muse brothers performed for British royalty and headlined more than a dozen sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. They were fine musicians and global superstars in a pre-broadcast era. But the very root of their success hinged on the color of their skin and on the outrageous caricatures they were forced to assume: cannibals, sheep-headed freaks, even 'Ambassadors from Mars." Beth Macy is a master chronicler of life in the South, and her exclusive interviews and sources make for a riveting American story about race, greed, and a mother's love. These were two little boys born in a brutal time, sharecropping a field in the segregated South, stolen away by a white man offering candy, and set on a path of events that would forever change their lives--and their family's destiny.--Adapted from dust jacket.
Subject: Children of sharecroppers Virginia Biography
Circus performers United States 20th century Biography
Albinos and albinism Biography
Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Combined Shows History
Muse, Willie
Muse, George
Genre: Biographies.

Available copies

  • 27 of 27 copies available at Bibliomation.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 27 total copies.
Sort by distance from:
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Brookfield Library 920/MACY (Text) 34029138099162 Adult Nonfiction Available -
C.H. Booth Library - Newtown 791.35 MAC (Text) 34014138150587 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Canterbury Public Library 791.35 MACY (Text) 33190000409912 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Derby Public Library B MUSE MAC (Text) 34047137503612 Adult Biography Available -
Easton Public Library 920 MACY, BETH (Text) 37777123557241 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Edith Wheeler Memorial Library - Monroe 973.0496 MACY (Text)
A GIFT FROM THE MELLEN FOUNDATION 2016:
34026138356428 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Howard Whittemore Library - Naugatuck 791.3 MAC (Text) 34027137958404 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Jonathan Trumbull Library - Lebanon 791.35 MAC (Text) 33430138239207 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Killingworth Library Association 973.049 MAC (Text) 33420145238540 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Lyman Memorial High School B MUSE (Text) 33431151101621 Biography Available -

Back To Results
Showing Item 7 of 13

Additional Resources