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Barnstorming: A Negro Baseball Story
“It was a typical muggy evening in Central Florida in the summer of 1929. The air was hot. The skies were clear - full of moonlight. But the night wasn’t quiet. Field hands were excited: the fruits of their labor were about to pay off. The strawberry crop was ready to be picked.” And then the unspeakable happened.
Jonathan Carroll’s new book takes a look at America during a time of lynching and other atrocities acted on people of color. But the author offers the reader hope, humor – and a little romance.
Columbus Jones loves baseball and yearns to start his own team. He and his friend Isaac organize the Eatonville Catfish as part of the Negro League, the only league that accepted black players. They build a solid team, but desperately need a good pitcher. Isaac offers a try-out to a promising young pitcher. One problem: the young man is white. Will the talented pitcher defy the Jim Crow laws of the South? Will the team accept him?
Columbus’s daughter Leola defies the culture of racial hatred when she falls for a young reporter. She has a second “fight” on her hands: the bias against women when she enters a “man’s world”.
This book is about race – blacks and whites in the South during a time of cultural change, but it is also about love, honor, perseverance, and understanding during a violent era in U.S. history. There were many who stood up to the “wrongs” and worked hard to make them “right”. Barnstorming explores the complexities of racism and the triumph of so many Americans.
Fall in love with the many players in “Barnstorming”. From pitchers to the outfield, from loving mothers to defiant children, this book will sweep the reader along through four decades of change. You’ll be rooting for them all.
Jonathan Carroll’s new book takes a look at America during a time of lynching and other atrocities acted on people of color. But the author offers the reader hope, humor – and a little romance.
Columbus Jones loves baseball and yearns to start his own team. He and his friend Isaac organize the Eatonville Catfish as part of the Negro League, the only league that accepted black players. They build a solid team, but desperately need a good pitcher. Isaac offers a try-out to a promising young pitcher. One problem: the young man is white. Will the talented pitcher defy the Jim Crow laws of the South? Will the team accept him?
Columbus’s daughter Leola defies the culture of racial hatred when she falls for a young reporter. She has a second “fight” on her hands: the bias against women when she enters a “man’s world”.
This book is about race – blacks and whites in the South during a time of cultural change, but it is also about love, honor, perseverance, and understanding during a violent era in U.S. history. There were many who stood up to the “wrongs” and worked hard to make them “right”. Barnstorming explores the complexities of racism and the triumph of so many Americans.
Fall in love with the many players in “Barnstorming”. From pitchers to the outfield, from loving mothers to defiant children, this book will sweep the reader along through four decades of change. You’ll be rooting for them all.
267 pages, Paperback
First published October 10, 2019
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7 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 23, 2022
"Barnstorming: A Negro Baseball Story," by Jonathan Carroll is a historical novel about race and baseball in the Jim Crow era of the deep South.
Through real life based characters, places, and events, Carroll takes his readers on a journey through the rural South fraught with lynchings, segregation, bigotry, and prejudice.
Leola Jones is a black woman who refuses to be chained to family life. She is educated, smart, and ambitious. As owner of the Catfish, in the Negro Baseball League, she needs her inner fire to guide herself and her team through the real life threatening dangers of being black.
Davis Sterling is a white rich playboy who snubs his newspaper tycoon father by writing about sports, and takes it even further by writing specifically about the Negro Baseball League's hometown team, the Catfish. As he researches, interviews, and spends more time with Leola, the black owner, his eyes are opened to his own ignorance.
A star-crossed love affair begins between Leola and Davis, leaving the reader alternately cheering and booing.
With surprising twists, heartbreaking true to life events, and realistic characters, "Barnstorming" is a perfect read for anyone who is a fan of baseball, black history, and American history.
Through real life based characters, places, and events, Carroll takes his readers on a journey through the rural South fraught with lynchings, segregation, bigotry, and prejudice.
Leola Jones is a black woman who refuses to be chained to family life. She is educated, smart, and ambitious. As owner of the Catfish, in the Negro Baseball League, she needs her inner fire to guide herself and her team through the real life threatening dangers of being black.
Davis Sterling is a white rich playboy who snubs his newspaper tycoon father by writing about sports, and takes it even further by writing specifically about the Negro Baseball League's hometown team, the Catfish. As he researches, interviews, and spends more time with Leola, the black owner, his eyes are opened to his own ignorance.
A star-crossed love affair begins between Leola and Davis, leaving the reader alternately cheering and booing.
With surprising twists, heartbreaking true to life events, and realistic characters, "Barnstorming" is a perfect read for anyone who is a fan of baseball, black history, and American history.
November 6, 2019
One of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Author has really put his heart and soul into the book. Amazing that this is his first novel. Couldn’t put it down. Can’t wait for the next one.
November 8, 2019
A tapestry of a period of American history blended with the author’s family history, and then fictionalized just enough to flow.
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January 26, 2020Currently reading it and so far it is exceptional
I can’t wait to finish it to know what the ending is like
I can’t wait to finish it to know what the ending is like
February 7, 2022
Great historical connections are made using an engaging story line. The Character interactions invoke relatable real life emotions, making it easy to place the reader in the setting of each page.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews