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American Tapestry (Enhanced Edition): The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama
A remarkable history of First Lady Michelle Obama's mixed ancestry, American Tapestry by Rachel L. Swarns is nothing less than a breathtaking and expansive portrait of America itself.
In this extraordinary feat of genealogical research--in the tradition of The Hemmingses of Monticello and Slaves in the Family--author Swarns, a respected Washington-based reporter for the New York Times, tells the fascinating and hitherto untold story of Ms. Obama's black, white, and multiracial ancestors; a history that the First Lady herself did not know.
At once epic, provocative, and inspiring, American Tapestry is more than a true family saga; it is an illuminating mirror in which we may all see ourselves.
In this extraordinary feat of genealogical research--in the tradition of The Hemmingses of Monticello and Slaves in the Family--author Swarns, a respected Washington-based reporter for the New York Times, tells the fascinating and hitherto untold story of Ms. Obama's black, white, and multiracial ancestors; a history that the First Lady herself did not know.
At once epic, provocative, and inspiring, American Tapestry is more than a true family saga; it is an illuminating mirror in which we may all see ourselves.
432 pages, ebook
First published June 19, 2012
69 people are currently reading
557 people want to read
About the author
Rachel L. Swarns
6 books41 followersRachel L. Swarns is an author, news correspondent and investigative reporter. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University. She is also a contributing writer to The New York Times, where she writes about race and history.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
July 21, 2012
Local interest: Michelle Obama's great-great grandfather was biracial, the result of a white father and black slave mother. He settled in Birmingham, Alabama, and helped found two churches. His business in downtown Birmingham was one of the few that had both black and white customers.
September 19, 2012
This was a disappointment. I know that this is popular history and that, even though I am a professional historian, I need to just cut the author some slack. But It was really, really hard to do so. First of all, Swarns needed an editor, or just a copyeditor. There are a bunch of silly errors and repeated phrases that started to irk me after a while. Second, Swarns comes to some totally unwarranted conclusions about how people "felt" or what they "believed." The evidence just doesn't exist to support these kinds of assertions, and yet she continued to make them throughout. At times she simply cited interviews with relatives, who had vague recollections of something their ancestors told them about their own ancestors. It was a lot of conjecture. Finally, Swarns just doesn't tell us all that much that we didn't already know about the history of slavery, the Great Migration, racism, or interracial sex in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Yes, it all links back to Michelle Obama, but the actual history is not new. At all. It's been written before, with much more attention to detail and accuracy.
The thing that is most supposed to humanize this account, Swarns' attention to one family or set of families, is also the book's downfall, because she just doesn't have enough evidence to weave together a plausible plot. This is, of course, always the problem when writing about enslaved people; they often didn't leave behind records with which to write detailed history. At least at the level of the individual, which is why most historians have chosen other routes. For those looking for detailed, plausible, well-documented histories of slavery, interracial sex, and coercion that use one or more families as a model, the gold standards remain Edward Ball's Slaves in the Family and Annette Gordon-Reed's The Hemingses of Monticello.
The thing that is most supposed to humanize this account, Swarns' attention to one family or set of families, is also the book's downfall, because she just doesn't have enough evidence to weave together a plausible plot. This is, of course, always the problem when writing about enslaved people; they often didn't leave behind records with which to write detailed history. At least at the level of the individual, which is why most historians have chosen other routes. For those looking for detailed, plausible, well-documented histories of slavery, interracial sex, and coercion that use one or more families as a model, the gold standards remain Edward Ball's Slaves in the Family and Annette Gordon-Reed's The Hemingses of Monticello.
October 28, 2015
The book is meant to be a history of the ancestors of Michelle Obama, black and white.
Such a good premise for a book and so poorly written and does not appear to have been edited at all.
The early pages promise us a history through geneology of the great-great-great-great grandparents of Michelle Robinson Obama through slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement right down to the White House. Somehow it never arrives. Although the writer has found names of ancestors at each level of parentage there isn't enough personal information available so she uses historical information from other people and too often presumption to indicate what each ancestor from the 14 year old Melvinia (the earliest known ancestor, born in slavery and emancipated by the Civil War) who bore a child to an unknown white man, presumeably (there it is) her owner or his son. The writer makes us feel she is going to unmask this man in the pages of the book, and even tell us for certain it was Henry Shields or his son and not some other white man with access to the young slave girl on a neighboring farm. She does a lot of wondering if it was rape or did Melvinia care for the man. Puh-leez.
She goes into detail about some of the contemporary descendants of the white owner, but never quite adequately connects the modern with the early generations.
The book was poorly edited. Many repetitions of whole stories, each chapter jumps from maternal to paternal sides of the family with no real rhyme or reason and from one generation to another, forward and back. Fortunately there is a family tree printed on the inside cover and one can turn back and forth to see just where we are in the branches.
Although I nearly finished it (the last few pages may have tried to connect the contemporary white descendants of the Shields family but by then I no longer cared) I did appreciate some of the history in various places (especially Chicago) and the reasons some black people moved where they did and when they did from the southern United States but conjecture filled the pages too much when trying to understand each generation and possibly even stereotype.
Poorly written but as there isn't much else out there about Mrs. Obama, better than nothing.
Such a good premise for a book and so poorly written and does not appear to have been edited at all.
The early pages promise us a history through geneology of the great-great-great-great grandparents of Michelle Robinson Obama through slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement right down to the White House. Somehow it never arrives. Although the writer has found names of ancestors at each level of parentage there isn't enough personal information available so she uses historical information from other people and too often presumption to indicate what each ancestor from the 14 year old Melvinia (the earliest known ancestor, born in slavery and emancipated by the Civil War) who bore a child to an unknown white man, presumeably (there it is) her owner or his son. The writer makes us feel she is going to unmask this man in the pages of the book, and even tell us for certain it was Henry Shields or his son and not some other white man with access to the young slave girl on a neighboring farm. She does a lot of wondering if it was rape or did Melvinia care for the man. Puh-leez.
She goes into detail about some of the contemporary descendants of the white owner, but never quite adequately connects the modern with the early generations.
The book was poorly edited. Many repetitions of whole stories, each chapter jumps from maternal to paternal sides of the family with no real rhyme or reason and from one generation to another, forward and back. Fortunately there is a family tree printed on the inside cover and one can turn back and forth to see just where we are in the branches.
Although I nearly finished it (the last few pages may have tried to connect the contemporary white descendants of the Shields family but by then I no longer cared) I did appreciate some of the history in various places (especially Chicago) and the reasons some black people moved where they did and when they did from the southern United States but conjecture filled the pages too much when trying to understand each generation and possibly even stereotype.
Poorly written but as there isn't much else out there about Mrs. Obama, better than nothing.
September 7, 2012
I gave this book 100 pages (okay, 98) before calling it quits. The author incessantly insinuated herself into the book by suggesting motivations and drawing conclusions where it was completely unnecessary to do so. I’m baffled – the book jacket mentions that Swarns has been a reporter for the New York Times for over 15 years. It seems like she should be skilled at telling a story while sticking to the facts.
August 17, 2012
This book humanizes the otherwise often off-putting subject of Black History by bringing alife the life stories of the many otherwise ordinary people who were Michelle Obama's ancestors.
I loved the way the author used Mrs. Obama's celebrity and popularity to attract the attention of readers who might otherwise never read a book like this. (For example, Me.) And I was very glad that I had read it because I learned much about life in various different black communities through the past 150 years that I didn't know--even though I earned a grad degree in American History.
The only thing I didn't like about this book was the way the author often repeated herself but this is more a problem of poor editing than of bad writing.
This book takes on the issue of the Elephant in the Room that is racial mixing and goes deeply into why it is such an undiscussed issue. I'm not black, but I'm a Jewish person with blond hair, and reading this book I was forced to confront the silence in my own family about my Grandfather's blond hair and blue eyes, which given that he was both an orthodox rabbi AND an orphan born in the year after a vicious antisemitic riot in Eastern Europe in the late 1800s probably hid a story very similar to that of Dolphus Shields and other mixed race people discussed in these pages. I'm grateful that we have come to a point where society can finally look honestly at these kinds of painful historical truths.
I loved the way the author used Mrs. Obama's celebrity and popularity to attract the attention of readers who might otherwise never read a book like this. (For example, Me.) And I was very glad that I had read it because I learned much about life in various different black communities through the past 150 years that I didn't know--even though I earned a grad degree in American History.
The only thing I didn't like about this book was the way the author often repeated herself but this is more a problem of poor editing than of bad writing.
This book takes on the issue of the Elephant in the Room that is racial mixing and goes deeply into why it is such an undiscussed issue. I'm not black, but I'm a Jewish person with blond hair, and reading this book I was forced to confront the silence in my own family about my Grandfather's blond hair and blue eyes, which given that he was both an orthodox rabbi AND an orphan born in the year after a vicious antisemitic riot in Eastern Europe in the late 1800s probably hid a story very similar to that of Dolphus Shields and other mixed race people discussed in these pages. I'm grateful that we have come to a point where society can finally look honestly at these kinds of painful historical truths.
July 9, 2012
I'm interested in my own ancestry, which I can't find out much about so this book interested me a great deal. I enjoyed the way that the writer told the story. Since I've also recently become interested in reading about the American Civil War, this book gave me another aspect of it. I did get a bit confused with the people as the chapters moved along and it seemed that there was a bit of jumping around. All in all, I think that if you're interested in history, Civil War, black migration to the north, ancestry, then you'll enjoy this book no matter what your political leanings.
June 8, 2019
I didn't realize until I'd actually started reading this book that it's unauthorized and sorely lacking in both interviews and real information. The author retraced the steps of most of Michelle Obama's family in the sense of following their moves and enumerating the births of their children, but the most interesting aspects of those early lives are buried in secrecy and the best Ms. Swarns can do is say she doesn't know. Well, the things she doesn't know about Mrs. Obama's history would fill a book, and this is it.
August 10, 2013
I've got a hardback copy of this, so it's possible that the paperback was a little different. However, here goes:
This book gives a fascinating slice of the different fates and paths of African-Americans during the antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction Eras. It also gives a real sense of just how *difficult* genealogical research is, especially if your ancestors were slaves or poor.
However, the (hardback) book itself reads like a poorly-edited series of independent reports about different branches of Michelle Obama's family tree. Each chapter kept explaining--as if we hadn't just read in the previous chapter--who everyone was, and reminding us of events that we already knew about. (And small pet peeve here: so-and-so was about X years old..." Just tell us at the beginning that of course dates of birth are approximate in this era, especially for slaves!)
I think the author was aiming for some sort of thematic grouping of these reports, but I really couldn't figure it out. The chronology was extremely confusing; it didn't go from early to late or the reverse; instead, it started sort of in the middle and branched both backward and forward. It also jumped back and forth between branches of the tree, sometimes with extremely rapid mid-paragraph swings.
The author also seemed to be trying to tell about four simultaneous stories: the story of how the research went (and what that process said about current racial tensions); the story of 4 branches of Michelle Obama's family tree; the story of historical events and cultural changes, over the past 150 years; and a history of how African-Americans and whites have seen race over the past 150 years.
There just wasn't room to do justice to all of that. And trying to weave all of these elements in together, without going into detail about any of them, further contributed to the organizational confusion. It also might leave confuse readers who aren't already familiar with the narratives and ideas that she refers to so briefly.
To get a better picture, try one of the "fiction based on family history" books like the ones by Lalita Tademy ("Cane River" and "Red River") or Alex Haley ("Roots" and "Queen") ...or Octavia Butler's science fiction/historical fiction "Kindred." Or read a book the author mentions: Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."
Having said all that, even while I was annoyed at the writing, I did finish this in a couple of days...so there's definitely something in the book that held my interest.
This book gives a fascinating slice of the different fates and paths of African-Americans during the antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction Eras. It also gives a real sense of just how *difficult* genealogical research is, especially if your ancestors were slaves or poor.
However, the (hardback) book itself reads like a poorly-edited series of independent reports about different branches of Michelle Obama's family tree. Each chapter kept explaining--as if we hadn't just read in the previous chapter--who everyone was, and reminding us of events that we already knew about. (And small pet peeve here: so-and-so was about X years old..." Just tell us at the beginning that of course dates of birth are approximate in this era, especially for slaves!)
I think the author was aiming for some sort of thematic grouping of these reports, but I really couldn't figure it out. The chronology was extremely confusing; it didn't go from early to late or the reverse; instead, it started sort of in the middle and branched both backward and forward. It also jumped back and forth between branches of the tree, sometimes with extremely rapid mid-paragraph swings.
The author also seemed to be trying to tell about four simultaneous stories: the story of how the research went (and what that process said about current racial tensions); the story of 4 branches of Michelle Obama's family tree; the story of historical events and cultural changes, over the past 150 years; and a history of how African-Americans and whites have seen race over the past 150 years.
There just wasn't room to do justice to all of that. And trying to weave all of these elements in together, without going into detail about any of them, further contributed to the organizational confusion. It also might leave confuse readers who aren't already familiar with the narratives and ideas that she refers to so briefly.
To get a better picture, try one of the "fiction based on family history" books like the ones by Lalita Tademy ("Cane River" and "Red River") or Alex Haley ("Roots" and "Queen") ...or Octavia Butler's science fiction/historical fiction "Kindred." Or read a book the author mentions: Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."
Having said all that, even while I was annoyed at the writing, I did finish this in a couple of days...so there's definitely something in the book that held my interest.
February 16, 2014
According to GoodReads rating, 5 stars stands for amazing, not for perfect, and that is what I give this book that I had a hard time putting down.
It is a fascinating story -- lots of research, lots of thinking went into it. It is a popular history by a NY Times reporter who researched the many family lines of Michelle Obama, who met in Chicago in the very early years of the 20th century. I can quibble that I wish the author had told the story of each family, instead of trying to parse them out and confusingly intermingle them but maybe she was trying to save the answer to the most suspenseful questions until the end of the book or the author. And there are no definite answers to many mysteries in this book.
I was interested in St. Louis and Chicago, back in the late 1800s, when one of Mrs. Obama's family tried settling in those cities. Her families converged on Chicago from all over the south -- from the rice plantation areas of coastal South Carolina, from the poor farms of north Georgia, one family by the early 1800s in southwestern Virginia, Missouri, and Birmingham. The author tells the stories of the white ancestors, when known, as well as the black ones. Author does make some assumptions based on flimsy records but she qualifies them as "possibilities" or "I believe", they aren't presented as fact. The whole story of what records are available is fascinating in itself.
Recommend this book to folks who are interested in history or in stories of ordinary people living through difficult times.
It is a fascinating story -- lots of research, lots of thinking went into it. It is a popular history by a NY Times reporter who researched the many family lines of Michelle Obama, who met in Chicago in the very early years of the 20th century. I can quibble that I wish the author had told the story of each family, instead of trying to parse them out and confusingly intermingle them but maybe she was trying to save the answer to the most suspenseful questions until the end of the book or the author. And there are no definite answers to many mysteries in this book.
I was interested in St. Louis and Chicago, back in the late 1800s, when one of Mrs. Obama's family tried settling in those cities. Her families converged on Chicago from all over the south -- from the rice plantation areas of coastal South Carolina, from the poor farms of north Georgia, one family by the early 1800s in southwestern Virginia, Missouri, and Birmingham. The author tells the stories of the white ancestors, when known, as well as the black ones. Author does make some assumptions based on flimsy records but she qualifies them as "possibilities" or "I believe", they aren't presented as fact. The whole story of what records are available is fascinating in itself.
Recommend this book to folks who are interested in history or in stories of ordinary people living through difficult times.
January 3, 2017
Original Draft of Library Journal Review [Library Journal 137, no. 10 (June 2012): 108-110]:
Do we ever really know our family’s history? With shows like NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are, it’s easy to see how much our ancestors have shaped our lives...and how little we usually know about them. First Lady Michelle Obama is no different. After all, it isn’t uncommon for relatives with difficult pasts to not tell their descendants exactly what hurdles they’ve overcome. Such is the case with the Robinson family. This book outlines the fascinating journey taken by various ancestors of the First Lady--the people who helped make her who she is today. In between these fascinating accounts lies the story of how this information was discovered and how it affected her and those distant relations who had no idea they were related to the nation’s very first African American First Lady. Of course, records can only tell you so much, so the facts in this book are supplemented with supposition. Sometimes, the author offers the reader various options as to what the facts really mean; sometimes, the author offers the most likely answer to the question at hand. All in all, a fascinating work that required a lot of research and dedication.
VERDICT I recommend this book to any libraries that have collections focused on biographical or genealogical works. This would also be a wonderful addition to any collections focused on African American heritage and history.
Do we ever really know our family’s history? With shows like NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are, it’s easy to see how much our ancestors have shaped our lives...and how little we usually know about them. First Lady Michelle Obama is no different. After all, it isn’t uncommon for relatives with difficult pasts to not tell their descendants exactly what hurdles they’ve overcome. Such is the case with the Robinson family. This book outlines the fascinating journey taken by various ancestors of the First Lady--the people who helped make her who she is today. In between these fascinating accounts lies the story of how this information was discovered and how it affected her and those distant relations who had no idea they were related to the nation’s very first African American First Lady. Of course, records can only tell you so much, so the facts in this book are supplemented with supposition. Sometimes, the author offers the reader various options as to what the facts really mean; sometimes, the author offers the most likely answer to the question at hand. All in all, a fascinating work that required a lot of research and dedication.
VERDICT I recommend this book to any libraries that have collections focused on biographical or genealogical works. This would also be a wonderful addition to any collections focused on African American heritage and history.
July 14, 2012
I gave this book four stars for the genealogy content not for how it was presented. The author did a great job pulling together current research on the ancestry of Michelle Obama as well as making her own contribution through interviews and DNA testing.
I would have enjoyed the book more if it would have placed more emphasis on facts instead of speculation on why certain events happened. Also, there was a lot of repetition in the book and sometimes it seemed like a series of articles instead of a sequence of chapters. In retrospect, I would have read the chapters in a different order. I would have preferred a chronological order instead of starting with recent generations and then going into the past in later chapters.
The first part of the book was very engaging with a lot of facts about the family while the second half became a historical look at slavery with fewer facts about the family. I would have given the book five stars if it would have taken a chapter or two to present the known facts about the family up to the end of the Civil War and then followed each branch down to the present time in the following chapters.
Steven
I would have enjoyed the book more if it would have placed more emphasis on facts instead of speculation on why certain events happened. Also, there was a lot of repetition in the book and sometimes it seemed like a series of articles instead of a sequence of chapters. In retrospect, I would have read the chapters in a different order. I would have preferred a chronological order instead of starting with recent generations and then going into the past in later chapters.
The first part of the book was very engaging with a lot of facts about the family while the second half became a historical look at slavery with fewer facts about the family. I would have given the book five stars if it would have taken a chapter or two to present the known facts about the family up to the end of the Civil War and then followed each branch down to the present time in the following chapters.
Steven
February 7, 2019
The author uses the stories of Michelle Obama's ancestors to tell the story of the African-American experience in the South and Midwest over the past ~150 years. What I liked about this book was a) the impressive research the author did into Michelle Obama's roots, and b) how she uses that research to provide personal windows into significant epochs of American history. I learned a lot, and it personalized a lot of the hardships African-Americans have faced in a way that is hard to do in a format other than memoir. However, this book is not great literature. I found the text to be fairly dry in a lot of places, and I did not like the non-chronological and non-lineage-specific organization of the book. There is a lot of jumping around, and a lot of unnecessary repetition because of it. And it makes it hard to keep track of the many members of Obama's large extended family. These detracted from what is really a unique and interesting set of stories.
February 28, 2017
Truly fascinating
What a truly fascinating book. Even if your not a fan of the Obama's, this book tells the story of a family that goes back thru history into the slaves of the south to the First Lady of the United States of America. Anybody who is into family genealogy will love this book. It resonates with every person looking into their past to find out who they are and where they came from. What a wonderfully written book about a 2 families that their stories have been able to be told. It is heartbreaking at times, because of the stigma of slavery is still painful even after all these years. But reading of these people gives love, joy, heartache, sorrow, disbelief and hope for the families that can survive adversity's deal of cards. What a wonderful story. A winner!
What a truly fascinating book. Even if your not a fan of the Obama's, this book tells the story of a family that goes back thru history into the slaves of the south to the First Lady of the United States of America. Anybody who is into family genealogy will love this book. It resonates with every person looking into their past to find out who they are and where they came from. What a wonderfully written book about a 2 families that their stories have been able to be told. It is heartbreaking at times, because of the stigma of slavery is still painful even after all these years. But reading of these people gives love, joy, heartache, sorrow, disbelief and hope for the families that can survive adversity's deal of cards. What a wonderful story. A winner!
July 22, 2012
I listened to the audiobook. I needed the genealogical table that is on the inside cover of the print copy in order to get a good picture of the four different family lines. The hook is, of course, the current first lady, but it could the story of any African American with roots in slavery. The author fills in with guesses because while the outline is clear and the historical challenges of the times are real, individual blacks had obstacles to documenting their lives. Ironically, bills and wills of slave owners are an important source of genealogical information. The book really captures the human toll that that slavery and it's aftermath took on families.
August 13, 2016
I listened to the audio version of American Tapestry and really enjoyed it. It explored Michelle Obama's genealogical history, which I found fascinating. Some reviewers have mentioned that it was hard to follow at times, but I didn't find that to be true at all. Perhaps it was because I was listening to the audio version. In any event, I found the book both interesting and inspirational. After discovering Family Finder through this book, I decided to have my own DNA tested. I'm hoping to find answers to questions that no one in the family has been able to answer. Like Michelle Obama, I'm prepared for whatever the testing reveals. Definitely a good listen!
July 28, 2012
OH! what a book!! To know that a legacy that started due to an act between a white man and his slave woman could produce the FLOTUS!! talk about blown! not to say that this is the only and ultimate story but I can now understand how something that might be bad can turn into something very good.
March 5, 2024
Amazing history of Michelle Obama. Her ancestors include both black and white races. What struck me in reading this book is not only the horrible injustices of slavery, but also the denial of recording history. No one, black or white, wanted to talk about the past. For blacks, there was so much shame and a feeling of not passing down such horrible memories. They needed to focus on a brighter future vs reliving the past by sharing it. This philosophy robs so much learning about the great achievements and perseverance of strong resilient people. However it is a philosophy that they needed to have to survive. Another sadness of slavery.
March 23, 2013
American Tapestry grew out of an article co-written by Rachel L. Swarms for the New York Times, in which First Lady Michelle Obama's family tree was researched. It was discovered that Ms. Obama had biracial heritage, and that a white woman named Joan Tribble, despite her family's misgivings, had a DNA test that confirmed that her ancestor, who owned Ms. Obama's great-great-great-grandmother, was the father of her child.
This slave's name was Melvinia, and she plays a major role in the book, which, as the title suggests, is a patchwork of stories regarding Ms. Obama's ancestors. "Melvinia's descendants would soar to unprecedented heights, climbing from slavery to the pinnacle of American power in five generations. Her great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Michelle Obama, would become the nation's first African American First Lady. Yet Mrs. Obama would take that momentous step without knowing Melvinia's name or the identity of the white man who was her great-great-great-grandfather. For more than a century, Melvinia's secret held."
The secondary theme of this book is inter-racial procreation, as Swarms points out that all four of Ms. Obama's grandparents had Caucasian blood. Swarms also points out: "Sex between white men and black women was a regular part of life on big plantations and small farms. Masters and their young songs, overseers, and others often preyed on their female slaves. Some white men wooed their enslaved women with small presents and promises of privilege. Others made no pretense of such pleasantries."
,
The book weaves the story of the various roots of Ms. Obama's ancestors, without regard to chronology. This can make it difficult to remember who is who, although there are helpful diagrams. Much of the book is the biographies of ancestors, such as Dolphus Shields, Melvinia's sons by her master, who lived for almost ninety years. Ms. Obama's relatives came from various parts of the south, such as Georgia and North and South Carolina, but they all ended up migrating north to Chicago.
While this book is passably interesting, it doesn't quite deserve it's book length. The article was probably much more to the point. Swarms repeats herself often, wringing her hands in type about whether Melvinia was raped or not. Part of the problem is that Melvinia didn't leave behind anything which indicated what she thought, so Swarms is left to speculate. She also writes in several different ways about how white masters took advantage of their slaves, not just in the paragraph above.
Perhaps what is the biggest problem here is that most of this has been told better elsewhere. The story of a biracial family was much more vividly told in The Hemingses of Monticello; the story of the migration of African Americans to the north was better told in The Warmth of Other Songs; and, quite frankly, Ms. Obama's family tree seems pretty typical of any family that came out of slavery, and can't compare to Alex Haley's groundbreaking Roots. There's nothing terribly dramatic here. The only ancestor who fought in the Civil War was a step-great-great-great-grandfather, and the rest were hard-working folks with nothing particularly distinctive about them. Sure, it's amazing that in five generations a family has gone from slavery to the White House, but for all of Ms. Obama's accomplishments, she is First Lady because she married well. Because Barack Obama is not descended from American slaves, Ms. Obama has become the subject.
But for those who are interested in reading about genealogical stories and the history of African Americans, this will be a must read. Unfortunately, Swarms is not able to go all the way back to Africa in her search.
This slave's name was Melvinia, and she plays a major role in the book, which, as the title suggests, is a patchwork of stories regarding Ms. Obama's ancestors. "Melvinia's descendants would soar to unprecedented heights, climbing from slavery to the pinnacle of American power in five generations. Her great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Michelle Obama, would become the nation's first African American First Lady. Yet Mrs. Obama would take that momentous step without knowing Melvinia's name or the identity of the white man who was her great-great-great-grandfather. For more than a century, Melvinia's secret held."
The secondary theme of this book is inter-racial procreation, as Swarms points out that all four of Ms. Obama's grandparents had Caucasian blood. Swarms also points out: "Sex between white men and black women was a regular part of life on big plantations and small farms. Masters and their young songs, overseers, and others often preyed on their female slaves. Some white men wooed their enslaved women with small presents and promises of privilege. Others made no pretense of such pleasantries."
,
The book weaves the story of the various roots of Ms. Obama's ancestors, without regard to chronology. This can make it difficult to remember who is who, although there are helpful diagrams. Much of the book is the biographies of ancestors, such as Dolphus Shields, Melvinia's sons by her master, who lived for almost ninety years. Ms. Obama's relatives came from various parts of the south, such as Georgia and North and South Carolina, but they all ended up migrating north to Chicago.
While this book is passably interesting, it doesn't quite deserve it's book length. The article was probably much more to the point. Swarms repeats herself often, wringing her hands in type about whether Melvinia was raped or not. Part of the problem is that Melvinia didn't leave behind anything which indicated what she thought, so Swarms is left to speculate. She also writes in several different ways about how white masters took advantage of their slaves, not just in the paragraph above.
Perhaps what is the biggest problem here is that most of this has been told better elsewhere. The story of a biracial family was much more vividly told in The Hemingses of Monticello; the story of the migration of African Americans to the north was better told in The Warmth of Other Songs; and, quite frankly, Ms. Obama's family tree seems pretty typical of any family that came out of slavery, and can't compare to Alex Haley's groundbreaking Roots. There's nothing terribly dramatic here. The only ancestor who fought in the Civil War was a step-great-great-great-grandfather, and the rest were hard-working folks with nothing particularly distinctive about them. Sure, it's amazing that in five generations a family has gone from slavery to the White House, but for all of Ms. Obama's accomplishments, she is First Lady because she married well. Because Barack Obama is not descended from American slaves, Ms. Obama has become the subject.
But for those who are interested in reading about genealogical stories and the history of African Americans, this will be a must read. Unfortunately, Swarms is not able to go all the way back to Africa in her search.
June 2, 2015
Interesting book exploring Michelle Obama's multiracial ancestry. I am always intrigued by learning about how people lived and related to the color line at other times in American history, and how history shapes families - so this book was satisfying in that way. I also really enjoyed the parts exploring the range of reactions among both white and black descendents of Michelle Obama's ancestors - some were eager to learn the truth about whether they were related, while others did not want to know and didn't even want their names to be used for the book.
This book could have comfortably been cut to 2/3 or even 1/2 of the length. I was impressed with the extent of the author's research and she certainly uncovered some great tidbits of history. However, when there was not a lot of biographical info available, she supplemented it with historical information about what was going on at the time (interesting but sometimes more info than necessary), as well as with speculation/ fantasy about what the characters were thinking and feeling: "Melvinia may have been shielded from the worst of the hardships. . . . The white man who had fathered her children might have shared the food from his own table and protected her from the racial violence flaring in town. Or Melvinia may have simply endured the difficult days of freedom just as she had endured the hard times of slavery. Maybe knowing that her children would never know the lash and would never be taken from her was enough, at least for a time." (p. 288) I can see that this was her way of humanizing the dry facts... but a little of that kind of speculation goes a long way.
Among related books that explore similar issues, I prefer:
Bliss Broyard, One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets
Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns : The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Daniel Sharfstein, The Invisible Line : Three American Families and the Journey from Black to White
This book could have comfortably been cut to 2/3 or even 1/2 of the length. I was impressed with the extent of the author's research and she certainly uncovered some great tidbits of history. However, when there was not a lot of biographical info available, she supplemented it with historical information about what was going on at the time (interesting but sometimes more info than necessary), as well as with speculation/ fantasy about what the characters were thinking and feeling: "Melvinia may have been shielded from the worst of the hardships. . . . The white man who had fathered her children might have shared the food from his own table and protected her from the racial violence flaring in town. Or Melvinia may have simply endured the difficult days of freedom just as she had endured the hard times of slavery. Maybe knowing that her children would never know the lash and would never be taken from her was enough, at least for a time." (p. 288) I can see that this was her way of humanizing the dry facts... but a little of that kind of speculation goes a long way.
Among related books that explore similar issues, I prefer:
Bliss Broyard, One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets
Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns : The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Daniel Sharfstein, The Invisible Line : Three American Families and the Journey from Black to White
September 4, 2012
This book had so much potential to be great. We are talking about the ancestry of the delightful Michelle Obama, during a period of history that is utmost unique, layered, and fascinating. And while it was fun reading about all the different lives that lead up to Ms. Obama, and it is absolutely astonishing to really think how many people are actually involved in the roots leading to a single person, the author's writing in itself needed some serious re-editing.
The most interesting story of the book was honestly the discussion between Ms. Obama's distant white relatives and black relatives. Yes, it is a very intimate and delicate subject, but honestly, wouldn't that be the part that a reader picking up a book titled "American Tapestry" be most curious about? While understanding that many of the white relatives would have been uncomfortable sharing their identities in public, I still feel that the author could have written this story with more finesse, rather than speculating on what would have happened between slave and owner.
I do commend the very brave Joan Tribble, one of Ms. Obama's distant white relatives, for openly coming out and revealing herself as potentially sharing bloodlines with the First Lady. I do appreciate honesty and the truth, even if it means accepting some very uncomfortable facts.
(Side note: I find it ridiculous that white America always chose to hide the potentially ugly truths about racism and minority issues in the US, even nowadays when the country elected a black president. I am pretty sure slave owners in the Antebellum South denied racism as well. Much like alcoholism, the first step to eradicating racism really is admitting that racism exists, then consciously working on avoiding racism on a personal level. Psychology pretty much dictates that people are naturally inclined to like those who look and behave similarly to them, so racism is almost part of our nature. If we deny that it exists, how are we ever going to be free from it's deeply innate mental binds?)
The most interesting story of the book was honestly the discussion between Ms. Obama's distant white relatives and black relatives. Yes, it is a very intimate and delicate subject, but honestly, wouldn't that be the part that a reader picking up a book titled "American Tapestry" be most curious about? While understanding that many of the white relatives would have been uncomfortable sharing their identities in public, I still feel that the author could have written this story with more finesse, rather than speculating on what would have happened between slave and owner.
I do commend the very brave Joan Tribble, one of Ms. Obama's distant white relatives, for openly coming out and revealing herself as potentially sharing bloodlines with the First Lady. I do appreciate honesty and the truth, even if it means accepting some very uncomfortable facts.
(Side note: I find it ridiculous that white America always chose to hide the potentially ugly truths about racism and minority issues in the US, even nowadays when the country elected a black president. I am pretty sure slave owners in the Antebellum South denied racism as well. Much like alcoholism, the first step to eradicating racism really is admitting that racism exists, then consciously working on avoiding racism on a personal level. Psychology pretty much dictates that people are naturally inclined to like those who look and behave similarly to them, so racism is almost part of our nature. If we deny that it exists, how are we ever going to be free from it's deeply innate mental binds?)
August 8, 2012
I wanted to like this book. I thought it would be a fascinating good read, full of history and human interest. I started reading, and then soon noticed that what was stressed over and over, was how this or that family member was pushed down by racism. That their history was lost because they had to migrate due to racism. I began to notice that hardly a page or paragraph went by without the mention of race or slavery. I started skipping through the pages, looking for something to settle on that would make this book more edifying. I finally gave up and didn't finish the book.
We all realize the horrifying acts that have been committed by those in power against those who are powerless. We all realize that Americans of African descent have had a long and hard road to travel to get to the point where a Black Man has become President of The United States of America. Really, most of us that actually read and pay attention, empathize and/or identify with the struggle for equality and respect. This kind of struggle has happened to every sub-group ( as in minority members of a society or nation) known to humankind.
We get it. It's time to learn to tell the (his)tory of a race and gender without constantly repeating and reiterating the struggles they/we have faced. Too much repetition becomes tiresome and actually dulls awareness of the message.
I think that Rachel Swarns is a gifted writer. And as I said, I really wanted to enjoy this book. I haven't researched to see if she has written prior to this book, but I will do so. I hope that she will once again grace us with her talent.
We all realize the horrifying acts that have been committed by those in power against those who are powerless. We all realize that Americans of African descent have had a long and hard road to travel to get to the point where a Black Man has become President of The United States of America. Really, most of us that actually read and pay attention, empathize and/or identify with the struggle for equality and respect. This kind of struggle has happened to every sub-group ( as in minority members of a society or nation) known to humankind.
We get it. It's time to learn to tell the (his)tory of a race and gender without constantly repeating and reiterating the struggles they/we have faced. Too much repetition becomes tiresome and actually dulls awareness of the message.
I think that Rachel Swarns is a gifted writer. And as I said, I really wanted to enjoy this book. I haven't researched to see if she has written prior to this book, but I will do so. I hope that she will once again grace us with her talent.
March 6, 2013
I enjoyed portions of this book, but overall I felt it was disappointing. I tend to love aything having to do with Michelle Obama, geneology, or historical fiction. But this was just poorly done. Some parts I found to be quite poignant, such as this passage on page 82:
"How does a marriage come undone? Sometimes it starts with a slow unraveling, with the fraying of the countless tiny threads that bind two people together. Or with wounds, as tiny as pinpricks, that fester instead of healing. There are biting words hurled like daggers unbearable silences that gnaw at the heart. Somehow, over time, the small intimacies that once enmeshed husband and wife - touch, laughter, conversation - seem to vanish. And the distance between lovers, whether across a kitchen table or a marital bed, grows so achingly wide that it seems impossible to bridge."
There were a few instances of this connection that Swarns makes with her audience, but the book was more of an historical overview of the ancestors of Michelle Obama dating back to slavery. The first 200 pages were tough to get through, but the last portion of the book was much more interesting and I enjoyed the conclusion. Some of the characters are just on the brink of compelling when Swarns changes storyline and loses my attention. Instead of organizing the book by time period, it might have been better had she stuck to exploring family lines - might have made more sense and been an easier read.
"How does a marriage come undone? Sometimes it starts with a slow unraveling, with the fraying of the countless tiny threads that bind two people together. Or with wounds, as tiny as pinpricks, that fester instead of healing. There are biting words hurled like daggers unbearable silences that gnaw at the heart. Somehow, over time, the small intimacies that once enmeshed husband and wife - touch, laughter, conversation - seem to vanish. And the distance between lovers, whether across a kitchen table or a marital bed, grows so achingly wide that it seems impossible to bridge."
There were a few instances of this connection that Swarns makes with her audience, but the book was more of an historical overview of the ancestors of Michelle Obama dating back to slavery. The first 200 pages were tough to get through, but the last portion of the book was much more interesting and I enjoyed the conclusion. Some of the characters are just on the brink of compelling when Swarns changes storyline and loses my attention. Instead of organizing the book by time period, it might have been better had she stuck to exploring family lines - might have made more sense and been an easier read.
January 31, 2013
The content of this book was fascinating and dealt with an important and often neglected subject, the genealogy of an African American Family, The writers information was well researched and well presented, and the first two thirds of the book was logically organized and very enlightening. The last portion of the book, contained some of the most intriguing information , but was rather difficult to follow, probably reflecting the difficulty involved with obtaining and confirming the information that it contained. I also wanted to see the two modern day cousins, one black and one white, meet and exchange thoughts, but this did not occur.
I would definitely like to read additional works from this author and think this topic merits further study and amplification. There must be millions of families like Mrs. Obama's, where oral history would be critical to tracking down documentary evidence and where pride, shame, or mixed emotions have prevented the full story from being told.
All of us are part of the American Tapestry, Ms. Swarns describes so well in this book. Many of us are related to each other in ways we never dreamed possible. Such knowledge can only make us more united and more compassionate about the triumphs and tragedies each American family has confronted, confronts today, and will confront in the future.
I would definitely like to read additional works from this author and think this topic merits further study and amplification. There must be millions of families like Mrs. Obama's, where oral history would be critical to tracking down documentary evidence and where pride, shame, or mixed emotions have prevented the full story from being told.
All of us are part of the American Tapestry, Ms. Swarns describes so well in this book. Many of us are related to each other in ways we never dreamed possible. Such knowledge can only make us more united and more compassionate about the triumphs and tragedies each American family has confronted, confronts today, and will confront in the future.
September 30, 2012
I'll start with the positive. I learned some new things about the Great Migration and the Civil War. The book included some other points of historical interest as well.
Unfortunately, these weren't enough to redeem the book from it's weaknesses. I picked it up on a whim from my library's recently inflated shelves of books that have anything to do with Romney or Obama. I thought, at first, that this might be a great way to scope out a possible Christmas present for some of my genealogically obsessed relatives.
I'm still not convinced that the book won't be a good gift, but I was so frustrated by the book's organization - or lack thereof. It skipped hopelessly around and could have unfolded in a much more logical fashion. It also had a ton of outright errors, missing words, incorrectly constructed sentences etc. The book, I assume, was rushed to press and should have spent more time in the copyediting process. And most of all, I was annoyed by the speculation. This book presented as historical, and fact-driven, but at several times it seemed like the author used any clue to draw any conclusion she wished.
Unfortunately, these weren't enough to redeem the book from it's weaknesses. I picked it up on a whim from my library's recently inflated shelves of books that have anything to do with Romney or Obama. I thought, at first, that this might be a great way to scope out a possible Christmas present for some of my genealogically obsessed relatives.
I'm still not convinced that the book won't be a good gift, but I was so frustrated by the book's organization - or lack thereof. It skipped hopelessly around and could have unfolded in a much more logical fashion. It also had a ton of outright errors, missing words, incorrectly constructed sentences etc. The book, I assume, was rushed to press and should have spent more time in the copyediting process. And most of all, I was annoyed by the speculation. This book presented as historical, and fact-driven, but at several times it seemed like the author used any clue to draw any conclusion she wished.
July 9, 2012
I just couldn't get into it. The genealogy was done by Megen Smolenyak, a well known genealogist, so I expected to enjoy the book. However the writing just didn't pull me into the story. It was written more like a dry history than a family story. The book was probably 2 or 3 times as long as it needed to be as it was filled in by information about other people who lived at the time and said things that might be similar to what the people in question might have felt.
In short, it was filled in with speculation about the times and people in order to put meat on people about whom the author knew very little. The first two chapters could have been shortened to to pages of facts summed up. To my mind, the author should have focused on the people who lived recently enough to interview or to have left written information about themselves.
And honestly, I didn't read past the 2nd chapter. Life is too short to spend on books that don't really hold my interest.
In short, it was filled in with speculation about the times and people in order to put meat on people about whom the author knew very little. The first two chapters could have been shortened to to pages of facts summed up. To my mind, the author should have focused on the people who lived recently enough to interview or to have left written information about themselves.
And honestly, I didn't read past the 2nd chapter. Life is too short to spend on books that don't really hold my interest.
December 25, 2012
A fascinating story not so well told. The author delves into Michelle Obama's slave and mixed-race origins and follows the migrations of her paternal and maternal forebears from Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama north through Kentucky and into Illinois. The problems with the story lie in its confusing timelines, occasional contradictions (a slave who "left no record of her existence" shows up later as having lived in several places), frequent and unnecessary repetition of information, and distracting assumptions and conjectures (Perhaps he walked down the same street and noticed . . .; She probably wondered why . . .; That unknown visitor may have been . . . ). If the publisher had bothered to pay for the services of a good editor, many of the problems would have been fixed. Further, the audiobook would have benefited from a narrator who didn't sound as though she had a cold.
November 7, 2012
I don't care for this new type of "imagined" history. (We can imagine what Melvinia was feeling, thinking, etc.). There is very little concrete evidence about the lives of most of Mrs. Obama's ancestor's in the historical record. This book attempts to help us understand what it would have been like for them by looking at the records that exist for others who lived in the same times and places. There was a lot of excellent and fascinating little-known history in this book. If the author had let the history speak for itself rather than constantly trying to interject imaginative re-creations, the book would have been worth at least 4 stars.
It was also a book in need of a good editor. In attempting to follow a number of different ancestral lines, it rambled and jumped around without clear summations or transitions.
In short, a wealth of fascinating information poorly conveyed.
It was also a book in need of a good editor. In attempting to follow a number of different ancestral lines, it rambled and jumped around without clear summations or transitions.
In short, a wealth of fascinating information poorly conveyed.
November 12, 2012
I loved the story, and the intricate details of just exactly how Michelle Obama came to be. It is a bright reminder that if our ancestry didn't exist the way it does, none of us would be here, or at least not be who we are. Though none of us chooses our relatives, they are our forebears, and made their own marks on the world that led to today; good, bad, or indifferent.
My only complaint is how the book is organized. I don't have a chance to read for long periods of time all at once, and sometimes I got lost in the story. It began in the upper middle part of the family tree on one side, then switched to the same level on the other side. The story moved down a generation, then up two. It was an interesting way to compare and contrast the two sides of Mrs. Obama's family, but I sometimes found it hard to follow.
My only complaint is how the book is organized. I don't have a chance to read for long periods of time all at once, and sometimes I got lost in the story. It began in the upper middle part of the family tree on one side, then switched to the same level on the other side. The story moved down a generation, then up two. It was an interesting way to compare and contrast the two sides of Mrs. Obama's family, but I sometimes found it hard to follow.
July 23, 2012
A fairly exhaustive genealogy of Michelle Obama's family, backed by some good research. There is sometimes a little too much "Oh, gee!" -- as in "Oh, gee! I didn't know that white slaveowners sometimes impregnated their slaves, did you?" "Oh, gee, I didn't know there were free black people before the Civil War, did you?" And, the constant jumping back and forth in chronology and between different parts of the family could become confusing. Since I read it on Kindle, it was hard to see the family trees (I've found this on other Kindle books, charts are difficult to see clearly), which would have helped track the various branches. Still, I enjoyed reading this.
October 12, 2012
This is an interesting topic and so I wish that it had been made more accessible to the average reader. The history o Michelle Obama's black and white ancestors is one that must surely resonate with many people in this country, but the author's disconnected stories and the way she jumps around in time, plus the repetitiveness of the information, makes it hard to keep reading. The book should have been about 40% shorter and maybe had one chapter per character, giving us their whole story in one place. And whatever you do, do not read it as an eBook. You will need to be constantly flipping back and forth to remind yourself of who is who.
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