McLaurin has written a valuable and beautiful book. It deserves a place on the shelf with "Coming of Age in Mississippi" as a document of life in the segregated South and of the moral challenges that segregation presented to those who lived in the system.

McLaurin's book is a touching recollection of growing up in the South during the 1950s. His rich narative describes not only the difficulties all teenagers face, but explores how these difficulties are made even more difficult in a changing environment. While so many imagine the white teenagers of the Little Rock school integration as pictures of young whites during the 1950s, McLaurin paints a picture of a young man sensitive to the plight of blacks in the Jim Crow South. A very good book, highly recommended to those who wish to get a detailed portrait of the 1950s South

I have to wonder if "charlesreads", a history teacher, has ever studied the theory of history. You can't fault McLaurin for not "nailing jelly to the wall." In fact, he should be praised for maintaining his integrity by not attempting to make assumptions about what happened to Celia without clear evidence. As any historian knows, it's not easy to document what really happened, and speculation opens one up to criticism. I also think it would be difficult to make a movie, because a movie-maker would have to make a decision about what version of history they would want to portray. I was riveted by the majority of the book, with the exception of the chapter on the "backdrop." I felt it was a little heavy on political detail.

In this short book, Melton McLaurin has accomplished more than many historians accomplish in hundreds of pages.

In this book the reader is drawn into the complicated world of antebellum America. In lucid prose, he simultaneously shows the ideology behind antebellum mastery, the connection between seemingly insignificant individuals and national politics, the hypocritical facade of the justice system, one woman's struggle to live under brutal oppression, and offers a compelling story that has a bit of mystery in it.

He accomplishes this monumental task with clarity and transparency despite substantial holes in the documentary evidence. His work is a model to show how historians can write for a popular audience and not oversimplify, nor fictionalize, the past.

We cannot forget that America enslaved more than 4 million black people, tortured them, raped them, and stole their wages, then, after "freeing" them, forced them to live in apartheid-like conditions for nearly one hundred years. Every American must read books like Celia to confront their past. Even those who came more recently need to recognize that the wealth and the freedoms of the United States that drew millions to our nation, rests upon the back of four million unvoluntary laborers.

Read more, learn more, do more.

This book is recommended.
The reading is superb. The
information has been researched
by the author, and exposes the
cruelties by the white anglo saxon
slave owners toward the Early
African American people of the time.
Many may get techical but Black people
who were in this country in those days
were African Americans but unfortunately
the term "slave" or "black slave" was
labeled to them by racist white america
during those times. One has to study the
past, but many put aside this dark/hatred
no light chapter but it has too be studied.
This might sound corny but one may not
change the past, but only learn from it,
and not commit the same mistakes as Anglo
America did in those years. The story is
about a young lady, named Celia, who at the
age of 19 was put to death by the law
for murdering a white man.Celia was hanged.
The jury
from the looks of things was all
white. Celia, the young woman out of desperation
had killed her owner because she was being
constantly molested/raped by him, which occurred several
times at the plantation.It was just constant raping according
to the book.She had several children by her white racist "master".
The book is a MUST have for all who really want too
know about the Slavery years and days. My last comment is that
for the most part ever book that talks about this
time/era and about this chapter "Slavery" or "African
American Slavery" mentions that White Anglo owners
always fondled/molested/raped/and funned Black women
and got them pregnant.It is very interesting but
todays white race really gets bothered with this type
of literature/history/investigation book(s).I believe
they should not, it happened, and it is the truth. ...