Mileva Mirec was born with a hip defect that made her limp. Convinced that this made her unattractive and unsuitable for marriage, she threw herself into the study of the mathematics and physics she loved. Luckily her father supported her studies. Even luckier she met a young brilliant physicist who seemed to find her mind attractive enough to propose marriage. His name was Albert Einstein. Unfortunately Mileva was expected to step back from her studies to raise their children. However she never stopped grappling with the tricky questions that Albert shared. As their marriage unravels, a trip on a train causes her to provide a specific perspective on one of those problems. Mileva disappears into obscurity. Albert develops his Theory of Relativity but whose idea was it really?
Saturday, September 25, 2021
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
So here's a bit of history I didn't know. During the Revolutionary War, the British promised freedom to any slave who would help them defeat the colonists. Unfortunately the British lost but before there was any kind of USA and before the Red Coats headed back to England, they tried to make good on their promise. They collected the names of any Negro who could show that they had helped and put those identified on ships to Nova Scotia with promises of free land. This record became the real "Book of Negroes." Pages of this book can be found in museums in Canada, England and our National Archives Public Records Office. The promise of free land was not so real.
This is the story of Aminata Diallo who could` have been one of the names in that book. But her story starts much earlier. As an 11 year old girl, in 1745, she is taken from her village and marched to the West Coast of Africa where she joined hundreds of others on a ship bound for the Americas. Her mother had trained her to deliver babies and her father had taught her to read some of the Koran but neither parent survived to make the horrible journey across the Atlantic. For various reasons, Aminata has some freedom to move about the ship and, as she does, those who are chained together call out their names to her. As she moves back and forth, she calls them back proving that she will remember. It is a belief in many of the West African cultures that you die twice. Once when your body dies and again when your name is no longer spoken. This struggle to remember is one of my favorite parts of the book.
Hill wisely starts the book with Aminata's adult story so you know she not only survives but has obtained a position of some importance. Knowing this made the heart braking story of her life possible to read. This is one of the best personal slave stories I have ever read. I hope that the strong and brilliant ways she manages to make her way to freedom were just as possible as the horrible side of slavery was true. And that we will remember.
Sunday, September 5, 2021
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
When slavery ended many people went in search of family members that were sold off long ago. Ads were placed in the Southwestern Christian Advocate giving names, dates and places related to those who were lost. These real ads from this real paper were read aloud in black churches at the time hoping to reconnect these families. It is these ads that form the basis of this story.
In 1885, Hannie, a freed slave, gets into a whole mess of trouble with two young women connected to her former master's household. Hannie is in search of anyone who is possession of three blue beads similar to the ones she wears around her neck. She also hopes to help Lavinia and Juneau Jane find the truth of their inheritance. In 1985, Benny Silva finds herself teaching in rural Louisiana searching for anything that will excite and engage her mostly poor students. So much history to discover as the stories work their way toward each other. So much culture to explore. Not sure how real the ending is but it is definitely sigh worthy.