Discovering My Southern Legacy

What was the cultural legacy of enslaved Africans in the American South, and how has that legacy been handed through generations?

For author Deirdre Foreman, this question is a very personal one: in this book, she explores the cultural legacy of enslaved Africans in the American South through an ethno-autobiographical reflection on her own African-American identity and family heritage. Through storytelling and personal narratives, the author describes her family's cultural practices and how they are directly rooted in those of the enslaved Africans on the southern plantations. Known as "cultural survivors," enslaved Africans established cultural customs and norms out of resistance to the control of white slaveholders to maintain their independence and pride.

Ideal reading for students of Black studies, African American studies, Africana studies, and related courses, this autoethnography humanizes and personalizes concepts that are crucial to the understanding of Black culture and Black history.

Auteur

Deirdre Foreman PhD is Adjunct Professor of Africana Studies and Social Science, and Associate Director of the Educational Opportunity Fund program at Ramapo College of New Jersey. An anti-racist trainer and diversity consultant, Foreman is also a visiting lecturer and speaker at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana; past President of Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) Manhattan Branch; and a member of both the Association for the Study of the Worldwide Diaspora (ASWAD) and the Diopian Institute for Scholarly Advancement (DIOP).