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Shirley Booth-Byerly has been addicted to the study of genealogy since childhood; she loves the never-ending battle of discovering subtle links, possibilities, impossibilities, and misconceptions. In God, Ghosts, and Grannies, she tells the story of her family—where they came from and how they settled in South Alabama and Northwest Florida. Telling the events as literary nonfiction and taking genealogy to a new level, her story shares insights from six generations, six unique individuals, each viewing life from slightly skewed, rose-colored glasses. Shirley melds humor, drama, and a living experience with research, resources, and revelations. Gods, Ghosts, and Grannies narrates a story of people’s lives, their hopes, their dreams, and the realities they faced while struggling, working, and tending their homes; the same homes that convey tranquil memories, laughter, sunshine, and contentment—memories forever gone when no one is left to tell the stories or no one cares to listen.

Describes the kinds of population, immigration, military, and land records found in the National Archives, and shows how to use them for genealogical research.

In North Carolina’s Free People of Color, 1715–1885, Warren Eugene Milteer Jr. examines the lives of free persons categorized by their communities as “negroes,” “mulattoes,” “mustees,” “Indians,” “mixed-bloods,” or simply “free people of color.” From the colonial period through Reconstruction, lawmakers passed legislation that curbed the rights and privileges of these non-enslaved residents, from prohibiting their testimony against whites to barring them from the ballot box. While such laws suggest that most white North Carolinians desired to limit the freedoms and civil liberties enjoyed by free people of color, Milteer reveals that the two groups often interacted—praying together, working the same land, and occasionally sharing households and starting families. Some free people of color also rose to prominence in their communities, becoming successful businesspeople and winning the respect of their white neighbors. Milteer’s innovative study moves beyond depictions of the American South as a region controlled by a strict racial hierarchy. He contends that although North Carolinians frequently sorted themselves into races imbued with legal and social entitlements—with whites placing themselves above persons of color—those efforts regularly clashed with their concurrent recognition of class, gender, kinship, and occupational distinctions. Whites often determined the position of free nonwhites by designating them as either valuable or expendable members of society. In early North Carolina, free people of color of certain statuses enjoyed access to institutions unavailable even to some whites. Prior to 1835, for instance, some free men of color possessed the right to vote while the law disenfranchised all women, white and nonwhite included. North Carolina’s Free People of Color, 1715–1885 demonstrates that conceptions of race were complex and fluid, defying easy characterization. Despite the reductive labels often assigned to them by whites, free people of color in the state emerged from an array of backgrounds, lived widely varied lives, and created distinct cultures—all of which, Milteer suggests, allowed them to adjust to and counter ever-evolving forms of racial discrimination.

Each volume of this landmark series begins with a thorough introduction setting the historical context for the group of documents contained therein. An expansive index completed each volume. Includes much material not printed in the first Colonial Records series.

The fascinating story of North Atlantic right whales—from their evolutionary origin, through a thousand-year history of relentless pursuit by whalers, to ongoing efforts to rescue them from the brink of extinction. In the cold waters of the unforgiving North Atlantic Ocean, some of the heartiest humans of medieval days ventured out in search of whales. Through the centuries, people on both sides of the Atlantic became increasingly dependent on whale oil and other cetacean products. To meet this growing demand, whaling became ever more sophisticated and intense, leading to the collapse of what was once a seemingly inexhaustible supply of large cetaceans. Central to the whale's subsequent struggle for existence has been one species—the North Atlantic right whale. Conservationist David W. Laist now provides the first complete history of the North Atlantic right whale, from its earliest encounters with humans to its close brush with extinction, to its currently precarious yet hopeful status as a conservation icon. Favored by whalers because of their high yields of oil and superior baleen, these giants became known as "the right whale to hunt," and their numbers dwindled to a mere 100 individuals worldwide. Their dire status encouraged the adoption of a ban on hunting and a treaty that formed the International Whaling Commission. Recovery of the species, however, has proven elusive. Ship strikes and entanglement in commercial fishing gear have hampered herculean efforts to restore the population. Today, only about 500 right whales live along the US and Canadian Atlantic coasts—an improvement from the early twentieth century, but still a far cry from the thousands that once graced Atlantic waters. Laist's masterpiece features an incredible collection of photographs and artwork that give life to the fascinating history that unfolds in its pages. The result is a single volume that offers a comprehensive understanding of North Atlantic right whales, the role they played in the many cultures that hunted them, and our modern attempts to help them recover.