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Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family
A family reunion gives way to an unforgettable genealogical quest as relatives reconnect across lines of color, culture, and time, putting the past into urgent conversation with the present.
In 1791, Thomas Jefferson hired a Black man to help survey Washington, DC. That man was Benjamin Banneker, an African American mathematician, a writer of almanacs, and one of the greatest astronomers of his generation. Banneker then wrote what would become a famous letter to Jefferson, imploring the new president to examine his hypocrisy, as someone who claimed to love liberty yet was an enslaver. More than two centuries later, Rachel Jamison Webster, an ostensibly white woman, learns that this groundbreaking Black forefather is also her distant relative.
Acting as a storyteller, Webster draws on oral history and conversations with her DNA cousins to imagine the lives of their shared ancestors across eleven generations, among them Banneker’s grandparents, an interracial couple who broke the law to marry when America was still a conglomerate of colonies under British rule. These stories shed light on the legal construction of race and display the brilliance and resistance of early African Americans in the face of increasingly unjust laws, some of which are still in effect in the present day.
In 1791, Thomas Jefferson hired a Black man to help survey Washington, DC. That man was Benjamin Banneker, an African American mathematician, a writer of almanacs, and one of the greatest astronomers of his generation. Banneker then wrote what would become a famous letter to Jefferson, imploring the new president to examine his hypocrisy, as someone who claimed to love liberty yet was an enslaver. More than two centuries later, Rachel Jamison Webster, an ostensibly white woman, learns that this groundbreaking Black forefather is also her distant relative.
Acting as a storyteller, Webster draws on oral history and conversations with her DNA cousins to imagine the lives of their shared ancestors across eleven generations, among them Banneker’s grandparents, an interracial couple who broke the law to marry when America was still a conglomerate of colonies under British rule. These stories shed light on the legal construction of race and display the brilliance and resistance of early African Americans in the face of increasingly unjust laws, some of which are still in effect in the present day.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published March 21, 2023
48 people are currently reading
5036 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Jamison Webster
8 books53 followersRachel Jamison Webster (M.F.A. Warren Wilson) is the author of the full-length collection of poetry, September: Poems (Northwestern University Press, 2013) and a hybrid of poetry and prose, titled “The Endless Unbegun” (Twelve Winters Press, forthcoming in 2015) as well as two chapbooks, The Blue Grotto (Dancing Girl Press 2009) and “Leaving Phoebe” (Dancing Girl Press, forthcoming in 2015).
Webster has published poetry and essays in many journals and anthologies such as Poetry, The Southern Review, The Paris Review and Blackbird. She edits an online anthology of international poetry, UniVerse of Poetry, which features poets from every nation in the world and creates programs to widen poetry's audience, through which she curated and produced "The Gift," a series of radio essays about poetry for Chicago Public Radio.
Rachel has received an Emerging Artist Award from the Poetry Foundation and the Poetry Center of Chicago, an Academy of American Poets Young Poets Prize, and an American Association of University Women Award, the latter for her implementation of writing workshops for homeless youth in Portland, Oregon. From 1998-2001 she worked closely with Chicago's First Lady Maggie Daley to establish literary arts apprenticeships for thousands of city teens. In this capacity, she edited two anthologies of writing by young people, "Alchemy" (2001) and “Paper Atrium” (2004). She teaches advanced and beginning classes in poetry and creative non-fiction at Northwestern University, in Chicago.
Webster has published poetry and essays in many journals and anthologies such as Poetry, The Southern Review, The Paris Review and Blackbird. She edits an online anthology of international poetry, UniVerse of Poetry, which features poets from every nation in the world and creates programs to widen poetry's audience, through which she curated and produced "The Gift," a series of radio essays about poetry for Chicago Public Radio.
Rachel has received an Emerging Artist Award from the Poetry Foundation and the Poetry Center of Chicago, an Academy of American Poets Young Poets Prize, and an American Association of University Women Award, the latter for her implementation of writing workshops for homeless youth in Portland, Oregon. From 1998-2001 she worked closely with Chicago's First Lady Maggie Daley to establish literary arts apprenticeships for thousands of city teens. In this capacity, she edited two anthologies of writing by young people, "Alchemy" (2001) and “Paper Atrium” (2004). She teaches advanced and beginning classes in poetry and creative non-fiction at Northwestern University, in Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
March 21, 2023
This book is written by one of almanac maker Benjamin Banneker's distant relatives. Part of the book is a presentation of the history of the author's ancestors, while another part covers the author's journey to discover more about that history. There is a third part, where the author creates a sort of historical fiction imagining what her ancestors' lives were like. Any one of these parts on its own would have been okay. A presentation on historical events or people can make a good book, as can a book about uncovering your own history. Historical fiction can also be very interesting. But when you put all of these things together, as was done in this book, they merge together in a way that no longer serves the purpose of its parts. Frequently in the book, I had no idea what parts were based on actual historical records and evidence and what parts the author was creating to have an interesting historical narrative.
Similarly, when the author discusses her journey to learn more about her ancestors, she often reproduces entire conversations. From the text, it doesn't sound like she was running around recording everything that she and other people said. Many books get around this by presenting a general idea of what happened instead of trying to recreate a word-for-word conversation, since the reader will naturally have a hard time assessing how much of it actually happened.
Overall, while I can appreciate what the author was trying to do by exploring her ancestry, it would have been a better book if there was a stricter editor to narrow her focus. This review was based on an ARC received from Henry Holt and NetGalley.
Similarly, when the author discusses her journey to learn more about her ancestors, she often reproduces entire conversations. From the text, it doesn't sound like she was running around recording everything that she and other people said. Many books get around this by presenting a general idea of what happened instead of trying to recreate a word-for-word conversation, since the reader will naturally have a hard time assessing how much of it actually happened.
Overall, while I can appreciate what the author was trying to do by exploring her ancestry, it would have been a better book if there was a stricter editor to narrow her focus. This review was based on an ARC received from Henry Holt and NetGalley.
April 28, 2023
Born into a family of freemen (and women!) in 1731, at a time when the majority of people of African descent in America were enslaved, Benjamin Banneker became a highly respected autodidact in a number of fields, including astronomy, mathematics, mechanics and nature. He was also the creator of a popular series of almanacs in the late 1700s and one of the original surveyors of Washington, D.C. When Rachel Jamison Webster learned that one of her ancestors was Banneker's sibling Jemima, she became immersed in her family history, connecting with distant cousins on long-forgotten branches of her family tree — but there was one detail that complicated Webster's connection to the past: her side of the family was white. At one significant point in time, one of her ancestors had made a choice to "pass," which undoubtedly opened additional doors of opportunity, but which also would have fatefully cut them off from their own families and subsequently obscured their history for their descendants.
As a genealogy and history buff, I am entranced by stories of family research, discovery and secrets. From that angle, Webster's story was fascinating. I empathized strongly with Webster's desire to reconnect to a part of her heritage previously unknown to her, but I also could feel the awkwardness in being the white person whose ancestors essentially abandoned and denied their own family members. It isn't at all surprising that some of her newfound kin would be suspicious of her motives, despite her having no less of a genetic claim to Banneker than they. From this reader's perspective, she seems to have treated the Banneker saga with appropriate sensitivity and respect, but I can only hope the rest of the family feels the same.
Having said the above, I really struggle with nonfiction books that blur the lines between known facts and the author's fanciful imaginings. Webster refers to her writing as "creative nonfiction," but even the best examples of this genre (of which I am fond) wisely steer clear of completely fabricated dialogue and invented scenes, or purporting to know the characters' innermost thoughts and feelings. The weakest parts of this work are when Webster begins a passage with "I imagine that [character] would have..." but then a few sentences later forgets she is merely surmising, and dives right into making confident assertions that are in fact entirely speculative. The reader can only guess whether any given passage is based on actual primary sources. This grated on me more and more as the story went on and, as interesting as I thought the book was, I cannot forgive Webster just making things up to fill pages — that's called fiction.
I received this ARC via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.
As a genealogy and history buff, I am entranced by stories of family research, discovery and secrets. From that angle, Webster's story was fascinating. I empathized strongly with Webster's desire to reconnect to a part of her heritage previously unknown to her, but I also could feel the awkwardness in being the white person whose ancestors essentially abandoned and denied their own family members. It isn't at all surprising that some of her newfound kin would be suspicious of her motives, despite her having no less of a genetic claim to Banneker than they. From this reader's perspective, she seems to have treated the Banneker saga with appropriate sensitivity and respect, but I can only hope the rest of the family feels the same.
Having said the above, I really struggle with nonfiction books that blur the lines between known facts and the author's fanciful imaginings. Webster refers to her writing as "creative nonfiction," but even the best examples of this genre (of which I am fond) wisely steer clear of completely fabricated dialogue and invented scenes, or purporting to know the characters' innermost thoughts and feelings. The weakest parts of this work are when Webster begins a passage with "I imagine that [character] would have..." but then a few sentences later forgets she is merely surmising, and dives right into making confident assertions that are in fact entirely speculative. The reader can only guess whether any given passage is based on actual primary sources. This grated on me more and more as the story went on and, as interesting as I thought the book was, I cannot forgive Webster just making things up to fill pages — that's called fiction.
I received this ARC via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.
June 13, 2023
Complicated feelings about this, would give it a 3.5 (i think) if i could.
I want to push back on some of the critique about this being multi genre and experimental. I think it makes sense given the dialogue within the book of different methods of constructing the past and remembering history.
At the same time, I wish this had been more multi-author. I thought the conversations with her cousins were very revealing and would have appreciated sections or chapters written by them, or sections of direct dialogue recording.
It was also fascinating reading this right after Yellowface, given that both books very much struggle with the idea of who has the right to tell which stories and how. Would recommend reading if that’s a topic of interest to you!
I want to push back on some of the critique about this being multi genre and experimental. I think it makes sense given the dialogue within the book of different methods of constructing the past and remembering history.
At the same time, I wish this had been more multi-author. I thought the conversations with her cousins were very revealing and would have appreciated sections or chapters written by them, or sections of direct dialogue recording.
It was also fascinating reading this right after Yellowface, given that both books very much struggle with the idea of who has the right to tell which stories and how. Would recommend reading if that’s a topic of interest to you!
July 26, 2023
I had thought that reading Benjamin Banneker and US would simply deepen my acquaintance with Benjamin. But over the decades since Alice Walker’s Color Purple awakened me to the rampant sexual invasion of enslaved Black women by their white enslavers, I’ve felt the painful hush shrouding the intersection of Black and white lives. As the stories in Rachel Jamison Webster’s book unfolded, I increasingly felt acquainted with not just Benjamin but also an expanded “us,” the many people with mixed-race, multi-ethnic ancestry. Webster’s writing normalized combined African and European descension within extended family through chronicling Benjamin’s lineage.
I appreciate Webster’s seamless time-traveling between revealing the past and living in a present during which the revelations were being unearthed. In the midst of her addressing the myth that race separates us into binary extremes, Webster bridged the past-present and Black-white dichotomies with insights into family similarities across the decades and complexions.
While reading Benjamin Banneker and US, I wondered whether Webster was ushering in a new literary genre. I’ve found that other books on race and racism have reinforced the historic and cultural gaps between Euro-descended and BIPOC world views. Uniquely, Webster has interspersed her own pondering, doubting, and discerning process into the content of her relatives’ lives. She elucidated the complexities of family systems, as well as the vagaries of cross-racial historic documentation and perspectives and of current biases projected onto past lived experiences. Webster’s telling the many histories of a single clan while voicing the pains and delights as each thread of these narratives passed through her own heart brought each family member into greater fullness.
As Webster’s research and family discussions disclosed, we humans share ancestry and are more related to each other than we’ve been led to believe. I congratulate Rachel Jamison Webster for laying a template for redefining and reclaiming our common humanity.
Bob Morse
I appreciate Webster’s seamless time-traveling between revealing the past and living in a present during which the revelations were being unearthed. In the midst of her addressing the myth that race separates us into binary extremes, Webster bridged the past-present and Black-white dichotomies with insights into family similarities across the decades and complexions.
While reading Benjamin Banneker and US, I wondered whether Webster was ushering in a new literary genre. I’ve found that other books on race and racism have reinforced the historic and cultural gaps between Euro-descended and BIPOC world views. Uniquely, Webster has interspersed her own pondering, doubting, and discerning process into the content of her relatives’ lives. She elucidated the complexities of family systems, as well as the vagaries of cross-racial historic documentation and perspectives and of current biases projected onto past lived experiences. Webster’s telling the many histories of a single clan while voicing the pains and delights as each thread of these narratives passed through her own heart brought each family member into greater fullness.
As Webster’s research and family discussions disclosed, we humans share ancestry and are more related to each other than we’ve been led to believe. I congratulate Rachel Jamison Webster for laying a template for redefining and reclaiming our common humanity.
Bob Morse
May 15, 2023
Usually when I write a book review I am primarily focused on HOW the story was written. But this book ended up generating just as much thought about exactly WHO was and should be writing this kind of story. The more I read, the more the author brought this question to the forefront (sometimes intentionally - often unintentionally) and the more I began to think about how history is shaped and changed by the voices and views of the people who relay it.
In all honesty, this book frustrated me and the first thing that sparked that frustration was the author’s choice of narration. She chose to tell her story through three different genres which just seemed to overcomplicate everything compared to simply choosing just the one (or maybe two) genre that would best tell the story. About a quarter of the book is historical nonfiction examining the lives of her ancestors, another quarter historical fiction, and the remaining half a memoir describing her personal discovery and feelings about her mixed genealogy.
The most interesting parts of the book, in my opinion, were the nonfiction bits and I quickly found myself disappointed when they blurred off into fiction. The historical fiction just felt unnecessary and irritating as the point of view kept changing. The author would often start a scene with words like “I imagine that Molly would have…” and then, somewhere mid-paragraph, switch over to words like “Molly thought this and felt that.” These abrupt changes between fact and fiction left me wondering what really was supported by historical research and what was simply conjured from Webster’s imagination.
The portion of the book focusing on the author’s modern explorations just fell flat to me. I couldn’t really see how this added all that much to the story, especially enough to warrant fifty percent of the pages. Most of these scenes felt less like Webster put them there to add to the topic and more like they were there to prove (to the reader or maybe just to herself) that she is “woke”. Many times it felt like the author was trying to justify and rejustify her decision to write this book, conversation after conversation.
What all of this left me with was just not enough actual history to sink my teeth into. And maybe that was Webster’s intent - not to examine the history of Benjamin Banneker and his relations as much as the way people of mixed race and mixed relationships have been viewed throughout American history and today. But if she was doing the latter I believe she was in sincere need of other opinions outside of her own. So much of this book is filled with what the author thinks and the author feels that she ended up doing the exact thing she kept insisting she did not want to do - make the story of this family a story about herself.
So I am left wondering, can a white American write this kind of historical story with the necessary amount of sensitivity? Not even Ms. Webster’s Black cousins could completely agree on the answer to that question. Some might say that these are the author’s ancestors, too, so why shouldn’t she try to tell their story? Others might argue that telling (and selling) a story like this is one privilege that an author who benefits from white privilege should, as an ally, willingly give up. Maybe a better question to ask is “Who should tell the story of Black history in America?” Personally, I’m not sure of my answer to that question, but I’m very sure that it isn’t my voice but the voices of Black America that should be answering it.
In all honesty, this book frustrated me and the first thing that sparked that frustration was the author’s choice of narration. She chose to tell her story through three different genres which just seemed to overcomplicate everything compared to simply choosing just the one (or maybe two) genre that would best tell the story. About a quarter of the book is historical nonfiction examining the lives of her ancestors, another quarter historical fiction, and the remaining half a memoir describing her personal discovery and feelings about her mixed genealogy.
The most interesting parts of the book, in my opinion, were the nonfiction bits and I quickly found myself disappointed when they blurred off into fiction. The historical fiction just felt unnecessary and irritating as the point of view kept changing. The author would often start a scene with words like “I imagine that Molly would have…” and then, somewhere mid-paragraph, switch over to words like “Molly thought this and felt that.” These abrupt changes between fact and fiction left me wondering what really was supported by historical research and what was simply conjured from Webster’s imagination.
The portion of the book focusing on the author’s modern explorations just fell flat to me. I couldn’t really see how this added all that much to the story, especially enough to warrant fifty percent of the pages. Most of these scenes felt less like Webster put them there to add to the topic and more like they were there to prove (to the reader or maybe just to herself) that she is “woke”. Many times it felt like the author was trying to justify and rejustify her decision to write this book, conversation after conversation.
What all of this left me with was just not enough actual history to sink my teeth into. And maybe that was Webster’s intent - not to examine the history of Benjamin Banneker and his relations as much as the way people of mixed race and mixed relationships have been viewed throughout American history and today. But if she was doing the latter I believe she was in sincere need of other opinions outside of her own. So much of this book is filled with what the author thinks and the author feels that she ended up doing the exact thing she kept insisting she did not want to do - make the story of this family a story about herself.
So I am left wondering, can a white American write this kind of historical story with the necessary amount of sensitivity? Not even Ms. Webster’s Black cousins could completely agree on the answer to that question. Some might say that these are the author’s ancestors, too, so why shouldn’t she try to tell their story? Others might argue that telling (and selling) a story like this is one privilege that an author who benefits from white privilege should, as an ally, willingly give up. Maybe a better question to ask is “Who should tell the story of Black history in America?” Personally, I’m not sure of my answer to that question, but I’m very sure that it isn’t my voice but the voices of Black America that should be answering it.
August 21, 2024
As someone who isn’t Black, I can’t comment on whether or not this is representation or exploitation. I can say this. There’s a paragraph where the author mentions modern Black writers talking about how the idea of a “good liberal white person” is a myth because they benefit from systemic racism, intentionally or not. The author then immediately goes “but I do think there are good white people because some of us have empathy,” thereby completely misunderstanding the point. It’s not about whether you feel bad that systemic racism exists, it’s about whether you are doing the work to understand how it benefits you at the expense of others.
The author then goes on to talk about how hurt and conflicted she was that her cousin was mad at her for writing this book, and how she pressed on anyway. She inserts herself “noticing” things her interview subjects point out, as if to say “me too!! I’m doing good too!!!” She inserts snippets of historical fiction with a LOT of assumptions that she does not then ground in the sections where she does her research. All in all, I’m not sure this book did what the author wanted it to.
The author then goes on to talk about how hurt and conflicted she was that her cousin was mad at her for writing this book, and how she pressed on anyway. She inserts herself “noticing” things her interview subjects point out, as if to say “me too!! I’m doing good too!!!” She inserts snippets of historical fiction with a LOT of assumptions that she does not then ground in the sections where she does her research. All in all, I’m not sure this book did what the author wanted it to.
March 10, 2023
Eloquently written, this book is insightful for today’s politics and should be high up on everybody’s list.
With the new technologies, DNA tests have surfaced unexpected results for many in this country. Rachel Jamison Webster discovered after a DNA test, there was a reason she had a tan skin tone. She has Black ancestors and now newly-located cousins.
After an intense amount of research, she found that she was connected to the Banneker-Lett families. Benjamin Banneker was self-taught and the author of several hand-written almanac books in the late 1700s. He hand-carved a working wooden clock and was hired by President Washington’s team to survey the DC area. He later questioned Thomas Jefferson about the meaning of freedom while having “enslaved brethren.”
Parts of this book are not easy to read. It reflects on the truth of what it was like for Africans to be kidnapped from their tribes. She said they were stacked three on top of one another in the ship, chained by their ankles into bunks with no cushions and forced to lie under the urine, diarrhea and tears of one another. After arriving to the US, the survivors were cleaned, fed and sold to farmers.
Every other chapter, the author reflects on parts of her own life and research where she digs deep into racism in our country, voting rights and media depiction. She shared several personal conversations she had with her Black cousin Robert. Too often, harsh conditions from our country’s past are forgotten or shamelessly whitewashed.
The book is well written and it took some time for me to get through as I stopped to take notes. At the end, she includes helpful resources: archival collections, books, articles, genealogy, lectures, news and podcasts.
Afterwards, I updated my DNA results only to find an African connection. Most of us will never know the truth about our family records.
My thanks to Rachel Jamison Webster, Henry Holt & Co. and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with an expected release date of March 21, 2023.
With the new technologies, DNA tests have surfaced unexpected results for many in this country. Rachel Jamison Webster discovered after a DNA test, there was a reason she had a tan skin tone. She has Black ancestors and now newly-located cousins.
After an intense amount of research, she found that she was connected to the Banneker-Lett families. Benjamin Banneker was self-taught and the author of several hand-written almanac books in the late 1700s. He hand-carved a working wooden clock and was hired by President Washington’s team to survey the DC area. He later questioned Thomas Jefferson about the meaning of freedom while having “enslaved brethren.”
Parts of this book are not easy to read. It reflects on the truth of what it was like for Africans to be kidnapped from their tribes. She said they were stacked three on top of one another in the ship, chained by their ankles into bunks with no cushions and forced to lie under the urine, diarrhea and tears of one another. After arriving to the US, the survivors were cleaned, fed and sold to farmers.
Every other chapter, the author reflects on parts of her own life and research where she digs deep into racism in our country, voting rights and media depiction. She shared several personal conversations she had with her Black cousin Robert. Too often, harsh conditions from our country’s past are forgotten or shamelessly whitewashed.
The book is well written and it took some time for me to get through as I stopped to take notes. At the end, she includes helpful resources: archival collections, books, articles, genealogy, lectures, news and podcasts.
Afterwards, I updated my DNA results only to find an African connection. Most of us will never know the truth about our family records.
My thanks to Rachel Jamison Webster, Henry Holt & Co. and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with an expected release date of March 21, 2023.
June 10, 2023
Several parts of this book made me cringe, to put it lightly. I don't even know where to begin with the critiques. First, Webster carelessly combines history, historical fiction, and memoir without taking much care to distinguish between the parts. I could continue the list and could almost forgive that if Webster, a white woman, had taken her head out of her own ass long enough to realize that this story is not about her and that by spending so much time naval gazing she inflicts significant harm on the people she tries to call family. By the end, I was hate reading the book, disgusted at how she made the story all about her.
April 25, 2025
***Audiobook***
Benjamin Banneker is a fascinating American that more people should know about. I learned about him accidentally when I was looking up the people that some of our local schools are named after (he has a middle school nearby). Benjamin Banneker was a free Black man in colonial and revolutionary Maryland as well as a scholar and writer who achieved amazing things given his time and place in the world.
This book is told as conversations. Between people during Benjamin's time, between various cousins today, and between the ancestors and their descendants. Benjamin's story is put into the context of the time he lived in and the people he was surrounded by. The author takes great pains to center Benjamin and the black family members while staying true to her own whiteness and discussing the white family members (namely grandma Molly) who are a part of the story.
Americans are bad at discussing race (to put it super mildly) and the challenge of telling a story that highlights the greatness of a black man, while acknowledging his mixed-race heritage, is significant. Sometimes the book read a little heavy handed on the white guilt, but I can't fault the author much for that. Finding the balance is, I'm sure, incredibly hard.
Overall, this was a good read that tried to balance the history and documentation that exists on Benjamin with family stories and connection that can't be explained with facts. If you're a dry history buff, this one probably isn't for you. But if you like character driven history (I don't know how else to put it) you will enjoy learning about Benjamin and his family.
Benjamin Banneker is a fascinating American that more people should know about. I learned about him accidentally when I was looking up the people that some of our local schools are named after (he has a middle school nearby). Benjamin Banneker was a free Black man in colonial and revolutionary Maryland as well as a scholar and writer who achieved amazing things given his time and place in the world.
This book is told as conversations. Between people during Benjamin's time, between various cousins today, and between the ancestors and their descendants. Benjamin's story is put into the context of the time he lived in and the people he was surrounded by. The author takes great pains to center Benjamin and the black family members while staying true to her own whiteness and discussing the white family members (namely grandma Molly) who are a part of the story.
Americans are bad at discussing race (to put it super mildly) and the challenge of telling a story that highlights the greatness of a black man, while acknowledging his mixed-race heritage, is significant. Sometimes the book read a little heavy handed on the white guilt, but I can't fault the author much for that. Finding the balance is, I'm sure, incredibly hard.
Overall, this was a good read that tried to balance the history and documentation that exists on Benjamin with family stories and connection that can't be explained with facts. If you're a dry history buff, this one probably isn't for you. But if you like character driven history (I don't know how else to put it) you will enjoy learning about Benjamin and his family.
April 16, 2023
Benjamin Banneker and Us, Rachel Jamison Webster, author
I expected this book to be a biography about a great family that has contributed to America and made history over 11 generations. I was very much looking forward to seeing Black and White relationships discussed in a peaceful and loving way. I had hoped to read a book that would bring people together, a book about unity, not division. Instead, it feels more like a treatise on white supremacy, racism and sometimes even race-baiting, as it points fingers at the political party the author objects to and engages in the dividing and conquering tactics that she accuses others of using. I feel as if the author wishes to indoctrinate me about my shortcomings regarding race. Therefore, though I have tried for weeks to enjoy the book, each time I pick it up, I find I am disappointed. I am unable to finish the book because I fear the author will not help me to see our commonalities, but will further separate us as people, in terms of color, religion and beliefs.
As a young teen, Martin Luthor King’s murder shook me up. I became interested in helping all those who were disadvantaged. As a twenty-year-old teacher, much to my family’s chagrin, I requested a position in the school in which I had student taught, a special service school with mostly disadvantaged students of diversity. I wanted to change the world, to improve it. In the process, I was assaulted. My car was vandalized. My wallet was stolen. Still, I did not use a broad brush to paint all disadvantaged people as vandals. I still believed I could help. I am not ashamed of anything I have done. I have no guilt for ancestors that kept slaves. My ancestors were slaves. All I want is to see people live in peace together, and I fear this book will not help me do that. I apologize, in advance, to anyone that may be offended by my comments.
The author is a poet, thus the narrative in the book moves from lyrical to melodramatic at time, is well-written, and indeed would be an easy and enjoyable read if the content were not offensive to me. I feel as if an undeserved target is being put on my back with every sentence. Although the author assumes guilt for crimes, that she has had no part in, and assigns it to others equally as innocent, I do not. As a Jew, I have witnessed my family’s difficulties because our heritage demanded extraordinary behavior. We had to be better, work harder, achieve more, be the first, etc. I blame no one else for my Jewish heritage and the lack of opportunity it afforded me, or others, in my family. I worked harder, and knew all I had was my good name which was obviously of a Jewish background, so my religion was no secret. I never wanted to keep it a secret, but others I know, changed their names to “pass” and belong in our society, as many in the author's family did regarding race. One group does not own the charge of abuse. When I spoke, my accent was definitely of Jewish origin, like Barbra Streisand’s. I was marked then, and I am marked now, as antisemitism is rampant and largely ignored, even today. If I did not erase my Jewish inflection from the speech pedagogy required for my teacher’s license, I would have failed and not gotten a license. Today, times have changed for Jews and for people of color. I am grateful, not bitter.
So being assigned guilt and expected to feel shame, by this and other authors, for our country's history, simply does not wash with me. I love my country. I love my flag. I love my religion, regardless of the hardships I have had to endure and others of my faith have had to endure because of it. The Holocaust did not scar me forever. It taught me about evil and hate, and the possibility of man’s inhumanity to man. Millions, not hundreds of thousands, of my faith were tortured and murdered. It taught me not to be that way, and not to be resentful, but to appreciate what I have received and not to look at others with envy. It taught me to be kinder to others and to recognize none of us are perfect, but we should certainly always strive to be and to do better.
For me, the author seems too progressive or ultra-liberal. To believe that the riots following the beating of Rodney King were justified because of our past sins implies that Jews can riot too, because America certainly has not been that kind to them from the get-go. Rioting and destroying the property of others or of harming others, is never justified for any group of people. Perhaps, it is the belief that it is sometimes justified, that has brought us to the point we are at today. We have rising rampant crime and increasing amounts of unjustified behavior by those who feel they are entitled to rebel, both black and white, and any other type of person that feels injustice has harmed them. We appear to even be resegregating because of the actions of some.
What I am finding most uncomfortable about the book is the way the white author is trying to justify her history, as if she is guilty because her ancestors were black and slaves. As she takes her family on a tour of where her black and white ancestors lived, as she learns more and more, instead of educating me with interesting facts, my overriding impression is that she is shaming me as she paints all of America with too broad a brush as White supremacists, as she paints all as misogynists who want to harm women. Both blacks and whites, coupled with Indigenous Peoples and all others of various backgrounds, view the world through their own color/religious/political lens, and it is hard to reach a compromise when so biased an approach is considered righteous. As the author imagines the life of her ancestor Molly, she becomes larger than life, since no one really knows what her life was like. There are a great many virtuous assumptions made that I find extreme, as well. I wish the author luck with the book, but I am uncomfortable with its treatment of the subject and of her treatment of America's history. Although I learned some new facts, they seemed tainted with bias and personal opinion. I wanted the book to leave me with a positive image of people, and, for me, it failed to do that consistently.
I expected this book to be a biography about a great family that has contributed to America and made history over 11 generations. I was very much looking forward to seeing Black and White relationships discussed in a peaceful and loving way. I had hoped to read a book that would bring people together, a book about unity, not division. Instead, it feels more like a treatise on white supremacy, racism and sometimes even race-baiting, as it points fingers at the political party the author objects to and engages in the dividing and conquering tactics that she accuses others of using. I feel as if the author wishes to indoctrinate me about my shortcomings regarding race. Therefore, though I have tried for weeks to enjoy the book, each time I pick it up, I find I am disappointed. I am unable to finish the book because I fear the author will not help me to see our commonalities, but will further separate us as people, in terms of color, religion and beliefs.
As a young teen, Martin Luthor King’s murder shook me up. I became interested in helping all those who were disadvantaged. As a twenty-year-old teacher, much to my family’s chagrin, I requested a position in the school in which I had student taught, a special service school with mostly disadvantaged students of diversity. I wanted to change the world, to improve it. In the process, I was assaulted. My car was vandalized. My wallet was stolen. Still, I did not use a broad brush to paint all disadvantaged people as vandals. I still believed I could help. I am not ashamed of anything I have done. I have no guilt for ancestors that kept slaves. My ancestors were slaves. All I want is to see people live in peace together, and I fear this book will not help me do that. I apologize, in advance, to anyone that may be offended by my comments.
The author is a poet, thus the narrative in the book moves from lyrical to melodramatic at time, is well-written, and indeed would be an easy and enjoyable read if the content were not offensive to me. I feel as if an undeserved target is being put on my back with every sentence. Although the author assumes guilt for crimes, that she has had no part in, and assigns it to others equally as innocent, I do not. As a Jew, I have witnessed my family’s difficulties because our heritage demanded extraordinary behavior. We had to be better, work harder, achieve more, be the first, etc. I blame no one else for my Jewish heritage and the lack of opportunity it afforded me, or others, in my family. I worked harder, and knew all I had was my good name which was obviously of a Jewish background, so my religion was no secret. I never wanted to keep it a secret, but others I know, changed their names to “pass” and belong in our society, as many in the author's family did regarding race. One group does not own the charge of abuse. When I spoke, my accent was definitely of Jewish origin, like Barbra Streisand’s. I was marked then, and I am marked now, as antisemitism is rampant and largely ignored, even today. If I did not erase my Jewish inflection from the speech pedagogy required for my teacher’s license, I would have failed and not gotten a license. Today, times have changed for Jews and for people of color. I am grateful, not bitter.
So being assigned guilt and expected to feel shame, by this and other authors, for our country's history, simply does not wash with me. I love my country. I love my flag. I love my religion, regardless of the hardships I have had to endure and others of my faith have had to endure because of it. The Holocaust did not scar me forever. It taught me about evil and hate, and the possibility of man’s inhumanity to man. Millions, not hundreds of thousands, of my faith were tortured and murdered. It taught me not to be that way, and not to be resentful, but to appreciate what I have received and not to look at others with envy. It taught me to be kinder to others and to recognize none of us are perfect, but we should certainly always strive to be and to do better.
For me, the author seems too progressive or ultra-liberal. To believe that the riots following the beating of Rodney King were justified because of our past sins implies that Jews can riot too, because America certainly has not been that kind to them from the get-go. Rioting and destroying the property of others or of harming others, is never justified for any group of people. Perhaps, it is the belief that it is sometimes justified, that has brought us to the point we are at today. We have rising rampant crime and increasing amounts of unjustified behavior by those who feel they are entitled to rebel, both black and white, and any other type of person that feels injustice has harmed them. We appear to even be resegregating because of the actions of some.
What I am finding most uncomfortable about the book is the way the white author is trying to justify her history, as if she is guilty because her ancestors were black and slaves. As she takes her family on a tour of where her black and white ancestors lived, as she learns more and more, instead of educating me with interesting facts, my overriding impression is that she is shaming me as she paints all of America with too broad a brush as White supremacists, as she paints all as misogynists who want to harm women. Both blacks and whites, coupled with Indigenous Peoples and all others of various backgrounds, view the world through their own color/religious/political lens, and it is hard to reach a compromise when so biased an approach is considered righteous. As the author imagines the life of her ancestor Molly, she becomes larger than life, since no one really knows what her life was like. There are a great many virtuous assumptions made that I find extreme, as well. I wish the author luck with the book, but I am uncomfortable with its treatment of the subject and of her treatment of America's history. Although I learned some new facts, they seemed tainted with bias and personal opinion. I wanted the book to leave me with a positive image of people, and, for me, it failed to do that consistently.
May 13, 2023
Benjamin Banneker and Us
Eleven Generations of an American Family
by Rachel Jamison Webster
Pub Date 21 Mar 2023
Henry Holt & Company, Henry Holt and Co.
Biographies & Memoirs
I have been provided with a copy of Benjamin Banneker and Us by Henry Holt and Co and Netgalley for review:
As relatives reconnect across lines of color, culture, and time at a family reunion, the past and present engage in an unforgettable genealogical journey.
Benjamin Banneker was a Black mathematician, a writer of almanacs, and one of the greatest astronomers of his generation hired by Thomas Jefferson to help survey Washington, DC in 1791. He then wrote what would become a famous letter, imploring Jefferson to examine his hypocrisy, as someone who claimed to love liberty yet was an enslaver. Rachel Jamison Webster, an ostensibly white woman, discovers that her distant relative is this groundbreaking Black forefather.
By drawing on oral history and conversations with her DNA cousins, Webster tells the story of the lives of their shared ancestors over a period of eleven generations, including Banneker’s grandparents, an interracial couple who married when America was still a conglomerate of colonies under British rule. A number of these stories shed light on the legal construction of race and demonstrate the brilliance and resistance of early African Americans in the face of increasingly unjust laws, some of which are still in force today.
I give Benjamin Banneker and Us five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
Eleven Generations of an American Family
by Rachel Jamison Webster
Pub Date 21 Mar 2023
Henry Holt & Company, Henry Holt and Co.
Biographies & Memoirs
I have been provided with a copy of Benjamin Banneker and Us by Henry Holt and Co and Netgalley for review:
As relatives reconnect across lines of color, culture, and time at a family reunion, the past and present engage in an unforgettable genealogical journey.
Benjamin Banneker was a Black mathematician, a writer of almanacs, and one of the greatest astronomers of his generation hired by Thomas Jefferson to help survey Washington, DC in 1791. He then wrote what would become a famous letter, imploring Jefferson to examine his hypocrisy, as someone who claimed to love liberty yet was an enslaver. Rachel Jamison Webster, an ostensibly white woman, discovers that her distant relative is this groundbreaking Black forefather.
By drawing on oral history and conversations with her DNA cousins, Webster tells the story of the lives of their shared ancestors over a period of eleven generations, including Banneker’s grandparents, an interracial couple who married when America was still a conglomerate of colonies under British rule. A number of these stories shed light on the legal construction of race and demonstrate the brilliance and resistance of early African Americans in the face of increasingly unjust laws, some of which are still in force today.
I give Benjamin Banneker and Us five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
June 2, 2023
After a DNA test, the (white) author learns that she has African blood and goes on a quest to learn about her ancestors. She manages to track down some "cousins" who have kept track of ancestry, and learns that she is descended from a sister of Benjamin Banneker, a prominent black man in revolutionary days, who corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, and was involved in the surveying of Washington DC. They have researched to a white indentured girl, who married a black man. The history is recounted, sometimes novelized by necessity, along with alternate chapters describing the people she meets as she follows the trail and the further research that they do.
This was interesting, and a fairly easy read, except that the characters were difficult to follow. So many had the same names, and it wasn't always clear which the text was referring to. At one point, i became confused, as it seemed that a couple had taken the woman's last name, and it was never addressed. Some of the conversations she discussed with her cousins seemed difficult to follow and didn't seem to advance the story at all.
I'm not sorry I read it, as it highlights the silly racial issues we see. I would bet that there have been a lot more "passing" over the years, and I think some people would be surprised to learn their own history.
This was interesting, and a fairly easy read, except that the characters were difficult to follow. So many had the same names, and it wasn't always clear which the text was referring to. At one point, i became confused, as it seemed that a couple had taken the woman's last name, and it was never addressed. Some of the conversations she discussed with her cousins seemed difficult to follow and didn't seem to advance the story at all.
I'm not sorry I read it, as it highlights the silly racial issues we see. I would bet that there have been a lot more "passing" over the years, and I think some people would be surprised to learn their own history.
June 15, 2023
Author Rachel Webster has crafted in Benjamin Banneker and Us a heavily researched, deeply felt account of one extended American family coping with nearly a dozen generations of racism, sexism, and classism. The book was recommended to me by a friend who's a collateral descendant of Benjamin Banneker, an early American mathematician, intellectual, and author. Benjamin Banneker, born in 1731, was widely revered in his time. In the classifications of the day, he was considered a free black man.
Webster had always been told she was “white,” until a chance conversation at a family wedding in 2016 revealed a Banneker connection. Webster and her cousins share genealogical research, including DNA testing, public records, and oral traditions passed down mainly through the black-identifying cousins in the 25,000+ descendants of Banneker’s siblings.
The book alternates between the historical facts and ambiguities of the Banneker-Lett lineage and the contemporary efforts Webster makes to learn how she fits into this newly expanded version of her family. Webster and many of her cousins on all sides of an increasingly blurry “color line” have mixed emotions about the complexities of the family’s story. Mysteries remain. Who constitutes “us” is rarely as simple as we think.
Webster had always been told she was “white,” until a chance conversation at a family wedding in 2016 revealed a Banneker connection. Webster and her cousins share genealogical research, including DNA testing, public records, and oral traditions passed down mainly through the black-identifying cousins in the 25,000+ descendants of Banneker’s siblings.
The book alternates between the historical facts and ambiguities of the Banneker-Lett lineage and the contemporary efforts Webster makes to learn how she fits into this newly expanded version of her family. Webster and many of her cousins on all sides of an increasingly blurry “color line” have mixed emotions about the complexities of the family’s story. Mysteries remain. Who constitutes “us” is rarely as simple as we think.
May 13, 2023
I understand the criticism of this book displayed in other reviews — the authors style potentially blurs the line between what is fiction and what is historically accurate. Even with that critique in mind, I loved this book. The author, a white woman, did a fantastic job grappling with issues of race and genealogy stemming from America’s torrid past and her present choice to write a book about a black ancestor. While she is the author, she included the voices of those she collaborated with as well as their difficult conversations about race and a white woman writing this book, voicing her opinions about this history.
To explore the life of Benjamin Banneker in this way with such poetic writing was enjoyable, informative, and thought-provoking. There is still so much that American’s try to sweep under the rug. This style of writing is a great approach.
To explore the life of Benjamin Banneker in this way with such poetic writing was enjoyable, informative, and thought-provoking. There is still so much that American’s try to sweep under the rug. This style of writing is a great approach.
March 6, 2023
One of the most engaging biographies I've read in a while! The author's connection to Benjamin Banneker is fascinating as she is a white woman, and Banneker was a free Black man. How did this come to be? Using historical records and family narratives that she collected when speaking with her DNA relatives, Rachel Jamison Webster imagines what her ancestors may have been like-- creating a more rounded picture than the history books. This book gets into interracial marriage, laws against it, and what it meant for her ancestors leading up to her present day. Definitely recommend for those who enjoy reading and learning about history.
Thank you Netgalley and Henry Holt & Co for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you Netgalley and Henry Holt & Co for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
May 9, 2023
Brent’s review does a great job at summing the book up. Only he was very gracious about it.
I’ll add, by constantly going on how she, as a white woman, didn’t want to center herself, she ended up inadvertently centering herself. Her responses to attention/acceptance from her Black relatives was a bit uncomfortable to read at times, like a pick-me neediness.
I’ll add, by constantly going on how she, as a white woman, didn’t want to center herself, she ended up inadvertently centering herself. Her responses to attention/acceptance from her Black relatives was a bit uncomfortable to read at times, like a pick-me neediness.
April 15, 2023
Rachel Webster beautifully weaves together personal narrative, history, imagination, and so much more into a captivating story that will make you fall in love with her writing. This is a wonderful read.
April 2, 2023
Living in the Revolutionary War period, Benjamin Banneker was a genius in an age of American greatness. He was a freed black man in Maryland who built a clock out of wood (yes, you read that right), published several almanacs, and critically helped survey the land for the District of Columbia. Rachel Jamison Webster found out in recent years that she is a white relative of his. A writing professor at Northwestern, she constructs a family history with relatives in this book and discovers that she, too, is a part of an American story of race, privilege, exclusions, ingenuity, and ultimate unity.
The book mixes two giant stories, with one chapter about the family history and the next about the contemporary discovery of the family history. The family history begins in 1680 when Molly is sent from England to Maryland as an indentured servant. She marries a black man and births a daughter. This daughter, too, marries a black man and births Benjamin and several siblings. Benjamin never has children, but his sister’s line continues. As was common in the race-sensitive 19th century, the offspring split into white and black camps, with folks “passing” as white not acknowledging their black relatives. Family historians amply supplement the written record, which gives the research a richness not often found, especially among historically oppressed people of color.
Webster works with these relatives and encounters deep hurt and wider cultural scenarios of privileged white writers cashing in on black historians. During the COVID years, she and the co-authors continue research to flesh out this story. Of course, as with any family history – and especially with African American family histories – primary source material is hard to come by; when it does exist, it is often scant. They try to construct what they can from oral stories. Complicating matters still more is that Benjamin’s cabin (with the wood clock and voluminous writings) was burned by criminal arsonists on the day of his funeral. Due to his impact, he legacy survives – including a famous letter to Thomas Jefferson advocating for the educability of enslaved people.
This quintessential American story includes racial injustice and reconciliation, mindless contradictions and moral clarity, and a country haunted by an unresolved history. The interlacing of the narrative reminds us of Faulkner’s observation that the past has truly not passed. Some of the writing is strongly imaginative. Thus, it cannot be considered a strictly historical biography. Further, as relatives, the authors have an obvious (and stated) bias. However, the oral nature of the source material should not detract from a good story. Further, the lives of the authors contain much of the values of their forefathers along with their traditions. Yes, they are not objective historians of this story, but interested actors. As for genre, I place it somewhere in the continuum between memoir and biography.
Some readers may have trouble with this imaginative component, but I would encourage any reader to approach the work with an open mind. The authors are eloquent and seek the best, even if that leads to seeming contradictions, past and present. Such is the nature of any historical reconstruction, and, to borrow from a common metaphor, they spin good yarn. Their imaginations are realistic and not contrived. I hope this reignites an interest in Benjamin Banneker, a true historical genius and fans the flame of America’s renewed interest in racial reconciliation. This story of the healing of one family can lead to the healing of many more… if we’d give it a chance.
The book mixes two giant stories, with one chapter about the family history and the next about the contemporary discovery of the family history. The family history begins in 1680 when Molly is sent from England to Maryland as an indentured servant. She marries a black man and births a daughter. This daughter, too, marries a black man and births Benjamin and several siblings. Benjamin never has children, but his sister’s line continues. As was common in the race-sensitive 19th century, the offspring split into white and black camps, with folks “passing” as white not acknowledging their black relatives. Family historians amply supplement the written record, which gives the research a richness not often found, especially among historically oppressed people of color.
Webster works with these relatives and encounters deep hurt and wider cultural scenarios of privileged white writers cashing in on black historians. During the COVID years, she and the co-authors continue research to flesh out this story. Of course, as with any family history – and especially with African American family histories – primary source material is hard to come by; when it does exist, it is often scant. They try to construct what they can from oral stories. Complicating matters still more is that Benjamin’s cabin (with the wood clock and voluminous writings) was burned by criminal arsonists on the day of his funeral. Due to his impact, he legacy survives – including a famous letter to Thomas Jefferson advocating for the educability of enslaved people.
This quintessential American story includes racial injustice and reconciliation, mindless contradictions and moral clarity, and a country haunted by an unresolved history. The interlacing of the narrative reminds us of Faulkner’s observation that the past has truly not passed. Some of the writing is strongly imaginative. Thus, it cannot be considered a strictly historical biography. Further, as relatives, the authors have an obvious (and stated) bias. However, the oral nature of the source material should not detract from a good story. Further, the lives of the authors contain much of the values of their forefathers along with their traditions. Yes, they are not objective historians of this story, but interested actors. As for genre, I place it somewhere in the continuum between memoir and biography.
Some readers may have trouble with this imaginative component, but I would encourage any reader to approach the work with an open mind. The authors are eloquent and seek the best, even if that leads to seeming contradictions, past and present. Such is the nature of any historical reconstruction, and, to borrow from a common metaphor, they spin good yarn. Their imaginations are realistic and not contrived. I hope this reignites an interest in Benjamin Banneker, a true historical genius and fans the flame of America’s renewed interest in racial reconciliation. This story of the healing of one family can lead to the healing of many more… if we’d give it a chance.
September 14, 2024
1 star
So I’ve been thinking about the review and while the book had a good potential premise and three potential story lines: (1) history about Benjamin Banneker, (2) the writer’s story about her whitefamily’s connection Benjamin Banneker, her connection, perception of and interaction with the Black relatives of Banjamin Banneker, and (3) her imagining the lives of the Banneker family members from 1600’s to 1900’s.
This style did not work for me.
Pros:
While I cannot imagine people have not heard of Benjamin Banneker, apparently some have not and this could inspire them to learn more.
Cons:
The author is a very distant relative of Benjamin Banneker, a descendant of his sister
Her centering of her whiteness and she even says her brother told her not to center the book about herself.
Her use of creative nonfiction and ‘filing in gaps’ of conversation and actions when no records exist. Ex. circumstances of Mary and Bana’ka’s history and arrival in Maryland.
• Ex. calling the other enslaved individual Pau.
• Creating an entire wedding reception for Mary and Samuel.(p. 168-170). Imagining the conversations Mary and Samuel had with their children about slavery and freedom and the increasing lack of protections for free Black people (p. 171).
• But what was worse was her imagining of Mary: “She hoped that Samuel’s light skin would help secure their children’s freedom, but she resented the fact she had to think this way.” (p. 169).
She mentions family excited to learn about their “black” ancestors but not those who were not. Little is devoted to them and how the decision of her ancestors to pass for white changed the trajectory of their lives. Of the white descendants who Robert knows what is their story? Did they decline to participate in? Did she ask them to?
Only one branch of the descendants (the Letts) is profiled yet Benjamin had a black nephew Greenberry Morton who is listed in the 1810 census as free and living with other free ‘nonwhite’ persons. Did they disappear? Were they killed? What is their story because there is a church (Mount Gilboa Chapel,) outside of Baltimore that has a dedication to Benjamin.
The Letts descendants are aware of other black descendant-cousins. One says 25,000 people identified via dna. Was there an attempt to contact any of them other than the ten Letts cousins she was on zoom calls with? For those who objected to the author writing this book did she offer to introduce them to a publisher who could tell their story/stories?
Very disappointing.
So I’ve been thinking about the review and while the book had a good potential premise and three potential story lines: (1) history about Benjamin Banneker, (2) the writer’s story about her whitefamily’s connection Benjamin Banneker, her connection, perception of and interaction with the Black relatives of Banjamin Banneker, and (3) her imagining the lives of the Banneker family members from 1600’s to 1900’s.
This style did not work for me.
Pros:
While I cannot imagine people have not heard of Benjamin Banneker, apparently some have not and this could inspire them to learn more.
Cons:
The author is a very distant relative of Benjamin Banneker, a descendant of his sister
Her centering of her whiteness and she even says her brother told her not to center the book about herself.
Her use of creative nonfiction and ‘filing in gaps’ of conversation and actions when no records exist. Ex. circumstances of Mary and Bana’ka’s history and arrival in Maryland.
• Ex. calling the other enslaved individual Pau.
• Creating an entire wedding reception for Mary and Samuel.(p. 168-170). Imagining the conversations Mary and Samuel had with their children about slavery and freedom and the increasing lack of protections for free Black people (p. 171).
• But what was worse was her imagining of Mary: “She hoped that Samuel’s light skin would help secure their children’s freedom, but she resented the fact she had to think this way.” (p. 169).
She mentions family excited to learn about their “black” ancestors but not those who were not. Little is devoted to them and how the decision of her ancestors to pass for white changed the trajectory of their lives. Of the white descendants who Robert knows what is their story? Did they decline to participate in? Did she ask them to?
Only one branch of the descendants (the Letts) is profiled yet Benjamin had a black nephew Greenberry Morton who is listed in the 1810 census as free and living with other free ‘nonwhite’ persons. Did they disappear? Were they killed? What is their story because there is a church (Mount Gilboa Chapel,) outside of Baltimore that has a dedication to Benjamin.
The Letts descendants are aware of other black descendant-cousins. One says 25,000 people identified via dna. Was there an attempt to contact any of them other than the ten Letts cousins she was on zoom calls with? For those who objected to the author writing this book did she offer to introduce them to a publisher who could tell their story/stories?
Very disappointing.
March 8, 2023
A British woman who had been an indentured servant and a kidnapped African freed from slavery married in the mid 18th c. Their grandson was a brilliant, self-taught scientist who helped survey the city of Washington, D.C. and wrote an almanac that sold across the East Coast.
Generations in the future, a woman discovers that her family had passed into whiteness and seeks to discover her famous ancestor and connect with her preciously unknown distant cousins.
As a historian she wanted to write the story of Benjamin Banneker. As a white woman, some of her black cousins said it wasn’t her story to tell.
This is about as an American a story as one could imagine. Its about the legacy of slavery and the divisiveness of race. How Banneker’s white mother and grandmother were ignored by blacks, fearful that racists would credit the scientist’s intellect to his white genes. How the scientist dared to write to Thomas Jefferson, attacking his inability to live what he had penned, and how Jefferson’s racism couldn’t allow him to recognize Banneker’s genius.
When Mary Welsh and Banaca married in 1696, indentured servants and African slaves worked and lived side by side. Interracial relationships were not unusual. Their daughter Mary also married an freed African slave, who took his wife’s name. Their child Benjamin became famous as a young man when he created a wood clock of his own design, having only studied a pocket watch.
Over time, some members of the family identified as white and their ancestor Banaca was forgotten. It was a surprise to the author when she learned that a family member’s DNA showed their relationship to Banneker and their black cousins.
The author imagines her ancestors’ lives, and documents the joys and strains of reconnecting with family.
Webster’s journey of discovery makes for fascinating reading, as memoir, as history, as a genealogy study.
(PS: It was interesting to learn that my ninth great-grandfather David Rittenhouse wrote an abolitionist article for Banneker’s almanac!)
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
Generations in the future, a woman discovers that her family had passed into whiteness and seeks to discover her famous ancestor and connect with her preciously unknown distant cousins.
As a historian she wanted to write the story of Benjamin Banneker. As a white woman, some of her black cousins said it wasn’t her story to tell.
This is about as an American a story as one could imagine. Its about the legacy of slavery and the divisiveness of race. How Banneker’s white mother and grandmother were ignored by blacks, fearful that racists would credit the scientist’s intellect to his white genes. How the scientist dared to write to Thomas Jefferson, attacking his inability to live what he had penned, and how Jefferson’s racism couldn’t allow him to recognize Banneker’s genius.
When Mary Welsh and Banaca married in 1696, indentured servants and African slaves worked and lived side by side. Interracial relationships were not unusual. Their daughter Mary also married an freed African slave, who took his wife’s name. Their child Benjamin became famous as a young man when he created a wood clock of his own design, having only studied a pocket watch.
Over time, some members of the family identified as white and their ancestor Banaca was forgotten. It was a surprise to the author when she learned that a family member’s DNA showed their relationship to Banneker and their black cousins.
The author imagines her ancestors’ lives, and documents the joys and strains of reconnecting with family.
Webster’s journey of discovery makes for fascinating reading, as memoir, as history, as a genealogy study.
(PS: It was interesting to learn that my ninth great-grandfather David Rittenhouse wrote an abolitionist article for Banneker’s almanac!)
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
April 12, 2023
This is a moving and uncomfortable rendering of an American family within the context of a country in its infancy, struggling to find its identity and independence. The book masterfully describes the historical conditions informing the lives of generations of a family, from the indentured white matriarch and enslaved African patriarch where the story begins to their grandson Benjamin Banneker, brilliant astronomer and mathematician (who pushed back against the politically constructed narrative of racial intellectual inferiority of his lifetime), to modern day ancestors. Webster’s discovery of this ancestry, her struggle with whether she had the right to tell the story of her black heritage as a woman whose relatives began passing as white several generations ago, and research and the painstaking care she put into respectfully bringing her ancestors to life for the reader was remarkable. Her newfound family connections seem spiritual and cellular, maybe an echo of the threads that bind us to our people through centuries. The meticulously researched historical context of each generation helped craft an understanding of what this family overcame to stay together and to thrive against impossible odds. I loved the juxtaposition of the historical storytelling of oral family histories against conversations with cousins in the current generation. It is a beautiful commentary on the “myth” of biological race, how we are more the same than different, as Webster reminds us that 99.9% of human DNA is shared across races and ethnicities, but how race has been used as a tool of political and social oppression throughout America’s history. It is also a stunning spiritual reflection on heritage, ancestors, and family.
May 23, 2023
This book was a random pick at the library. It was in one of the library's displays; I don't remember the theme. Somehow, Benjamin Banneker was in my consciousness and the genealogical/DNA aspect also was intriguing to me. (I now note that I "shelved" this book as "to-read" in March, though I am not sure how/where I heard of it.)
In alternating chapters, the author imagines the lives of her African ancestors, including Benjamin Banneker, and relates her present life, during the covid pandemic, connecting with her new-found DNA cousins.
One criticism: I wish that the author had included at least an abbreviated family tree show the connection both to Benjamin and his grandparents and to the referenced DNA cousins, Robert, Edie, Gwen and Edwin who she credits. I tried to draw a family tree myself, but became confused with some of the relationships and names.
"Ancestry is always a collective inheritance and not an individual one, and discovering our ancestry is as much about cultivating healthy relationships in the present as it is about unearthing the names of ancestors from the past." (Author;s Note xii)
"Ancestry is not an individual acquisition but a collective inheritance, a shared process of awareness." (252)
"The science of DNA had opened up new narratives to me. But all of this had been about more than the stories, I knew now. It had been about relationships. It had given me a new way of existing in the world - a way that was both more connected to others and more rooted in myself. It had given me a present that was much fuller for being connected to the past." (293)
In alternating chapters, the author imagines the lives of her African ancestors, including Benjamin Banneker, and relates her present life, during the covid pandemic, connecting with her new-found DNA cousins.
One criticism: I wish that the author had included at least an abbreviated family tree show the connection both to Benjamin and his grandparents and to the referenced DNA cousins, Robert, Edie, Gwen and Edwin who she credits. I tried to draw a family tree myself, but became confused with some of the relationships and names.
"Ancestry is always a collective inheritance and not an individual one, and discovering our ancestry is as much about cultivating healthy relationships in the present as it is about unearthing the names of ancestors from the past." (Author;s Note xii)
"Ancestry is not an individual acquisition but a collective inheritance, a shared process of awareness." (252)
"The science of DNA had opened up new narratives to me. But all of this had been about more than the stories, I knew now. It had been about relationships. It had given me a new way of existing in the world - a way that was both more connected to others and more rooted in myself. It had given me a present that was much fuller for being connected to the past." (293)
September 11, 2024
I was curious to read about a white American with black ancestry, a subject completely unfamiliar to most white Americans. Now with the advent of DNA testing some Americans are very surprised by what they find in the family tree. My own parents come from the Caribbean, where it is more or less assumed, and racial distinctions are not so clear cut, or cruel, so I was curious to see how an American would handle the subject.
She had trouble. The author turned herself inside out so many times. First off, “creative non-fiction” is an oxymoron. If the story is factual, then why try to be creative? She employs three different writing styles which are disjointed and did nothing to advance her story. The fictitious style seemed better suited to juvenile or young adult readers, while the author spent so much time on political and social issues I didn’t want to finish.
Discussing who is “allowed” to write about a subject is anathema to the creative process and smacks of repression and totalitarianism. The (young) people taking this stand couldn’t possibly be readers themselves or they would know that reading opens our minds to other ways of life and other experiences. Reading is what ties us together, it doesn’t separate us. It’s what makes us human. There is no room for “otherness” we are one and the same—we’re all Americans. Books are how we share ourselves with others. People who don’t read much may not realize this.
She had trouble. The author turned herself inside out so many times. First off, “creative non-fiction” is an oxymoron. If the story is factual, then why try to be creative? She employs three different writing styles which are disjointed and did nothing to advance her story. The fictitious style seemed better suited to juvenile or young adult readers, while the author spent so much time on political and social issues I didn’t want to finish.
Discussing who is “allowed” to write about a subject is anathema to the creative process and smacks of repression and totalitarianism. The (young) people taking this stand couldn’t possibly be readers themselves or they would know that reading opens our minds to other ways of life and other experiences. Reading is what ties us together, it doesn’t separate us. It’s what makes us human. There is no room for “otherness” we are one and the same—we’re all Americans. Books are how we share ourselves with others. People who don’t read much may not realize this.
May 4, 2023
I finished BB&U this morning and have to say that I was totally engaged in the entire book. I’m glad I read the NYT review (and NPR’s review, too) and that at least one of them said that the style of historical fantasy (I think she called it) didn’t really work for her, as that’s what I struggled with the most, especially at first. I thought some of those chapters, especially the early ones with Molly and Bane’ke (sp), read like young adult story telling. Maybe I got used to it, because at the end, I was better ‘accepting’ of the style, the voice.
However, I appreciated the information she presented, much new to me.
I WANTED A FAMILY TREE!!! I ended up making my own, but it’s very incomplete and possibly confused… I wanted to SEE how she is related to BB AND how she’s related to my cousin Janice… and I wanted to see how the Letts and the present-day folks were related.
As for the chapters where Rachel interacts with her cousins, I absolutely LOVED them! I was moved to tears several times, in fact. She captured the complicated nature of race and racism in our society. I particularly appreciated “The Rift” chapter and her struggles with Robert and the unnamed cousins as well as those within herself.
Overall, by the end, I was really happy how she tied everything together. I loved the photos, I loved that this was a personal journey. I loved that she acknowledged her aunts and our cousin Nathan!!
However, I appreciated the information she presented, much new to me.
I WANTED A FAMILY TREE!!! I ended up making my own, but it’s very incomplete and possibly confused… I wanted to SEE how she is related to BB AND how she’s related to my cousin Janice… and I wanted to see how the Letts and the present-day folks were related.
As for the chapters where Rachel interacts with her cousins, I absolutely LOVED them! I was moved to tears several times, in fact. She captured the complicated nature of race and racism in our society. I particularly appreciated “The Rift” chapter and her struggles with Robert and the unnamed cousins as well as those within herself.
Overall, by the end, I was really happy how she tied everything together. I loved the photos, I loved that this was a personal journey. I loved that she acknowledged her aunts and our cousin Nathan!!
March 28, 2023
Benjamin Banneker is one of the most fascinating early Americans and his personal story would be enough to fill a book. However, the story of his parents and relatives is another fascinating aspect of his life. Rachel Jamison Webster’s book is a well-researched, thoughtful discussion not only on Banneker, but on race, America, family and the stories we tell or don’t tell. Webster, a White woman, found out that she was a descendent of Banneker, but her family had turned away from their Black ancestry and family because it was easier and an economic advantage to be White in America. Webster does a great job telling her story and the story of her relatives including Banneker. The book really benefits from her discussions with her Black relatives. I really enjoyed this book as it blended so well all these different aspects of the story. However, where it might fall a little short is in the reimaging of events. It isn’t always abundantly clear on what is based on facts, stories or just imagined. It could be that I read an ARC of the book on my e-reader so being able to see end notes, might make that clearer in the hard copy. However, I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about the early history of America, Banneker, family, or race.
May 2, 2023
You can tell this book is a work of love by the author and she was very invested, but it is not to my taste. After doing a DNA test, Jamison Webster finds out she is a descendent of Benjamin Banneker's sister and at some point in the family's line, an ancestor passed for white. She fully delves into all things Banneker, almost to a point of obsession and to me, sometimes inserts herself into places and people's lives regardless to their feelings. You get a sense early one when she visits a museum and says you can tell the docent is thinking "oh great, here's another white lady who says she's related to Benjamin Banneker." Or when she is mulling over "how do I tell my friends? Or family?" I can't tell if it is a layer of drama for the book or if she really did go around to everyone trying to make this her only line of conversation. To me, it became more about her than Banneker.
And I could have probably dealt with this emotional story of finding out about family if she made the stories of her ancestors more factual than in a historical fiction narrative. Instead of laying out things, it was more of "Molly wiped her eyes as she thought she was...." which created a more literary style than historical recounting.
And I could have probably dealt with this emotional story of finding out about family if she made the stories of her ancestors more factual than in a historical fiction narrative. Instead of laying out things, it was more of "Molly wiped her eyes as she thought she was...." which created a more literary style than historical recounting.
February 12, 2024
Full Disclosure: Goodreads Giveaway Winner
I enjoyed this book - I really did, but I take issue with the label of non-fiction or biography. Yes, it's a memoir of Webster's search for and conversations with her Banneker relatives, but the historical bits very often stray into historical fiction.
There is some murkiness in the research because of the vagaries of spelling, and the often lack of documentation of Africans, women and the poor (including indentured servants). Some experiences and even conversations or thoughts are attributed to ancestors that are simply based on other, documented people.
The information about Benjamin Banneker is good, verifiable, and presented in an engaging way. She does not shy away from issues experienced with other descendants (many times removed cousins, or aunts/uncles), and acknowledges her own foibles in being a white woman writing the history of an African/African American family
My question is, with as much as she depended on these relatives for her research, and in light of the issues of this story being presented by a white woman, why not work in tandem with one or more of these relatives and coauthor the book?
I enjoyed this book - I really did, but I take issue with the label of non-fiction or biography. Yes, it's a memoir of Webster's search for and conversations with her Banneker relatives, but the historical bits very often stray into historical fiction.
There is some murkiness in the research because of the vagaries of spelling, and the often lack of documentation of Africans, women and the poor (including indentured servants). Some experiences and even conversations or thoughts are attributed to ancestors that are simply based on other, documented people.
The information about Benjamin Banneker is good, verifiable, and presented in an engaging way. She does not shy away from issues experienced with other descendants (many times removed cousins, or aunts/uncles), and acknowledges her own foibles in being a white woman writing the history of an African/African American family
My question is, with as much as she depended on these relatives for her research, and in light of the issues of this story being presented by a white woman, why not work in tandem with one or more of these relatives and coauthor the book?
April 9, 2023
3.5
I think overall this book is very interesting and talks about a lot of important things.
I think documenting the journey of delving into your ancestry is awesome and I found it pretty fun to read about, but it's clear that she didn't record the conversations she had and it shows. I couldn't tell when it was supposed to be her talking or someone else because it all used the same voice in the text and that affected my reading experience way more than I thought it would.
I did appreciate the creative detail given to the historical parts. It served to make these people more than just names and facts on a page, which I think is so important. Especially with black people and women who rarely ever have detailed information about them in historical documents. I think there are parts where the descriptions of what it might have been like back then do go on a little too long, though, and I ended up skimming through quite a few sections.
I think overall this book is very interesting and talks about a lot of important things.
I think documenting the journey of delving into your ancestry is awesome and I found it pretty fun to read about, but it's clear that she didn't record the conversations she had and it shows. I couldn't tell when it was supposed to be her talking or someone else because it all used the same voice in the text and that affected my reading experience way more than I thought it would.
I did appreciate the creative detail given to the historical parts. It served to make these people more than just names and facts on a page, which I think is so important. Especially with black people and women who rarely ever have detailed information about them in historical documents. I think there are parts where the descriptions of what it might have been like back then do go on a little too long, though, and I ended up skimming through quite a few sections.
May 10, 2023
I just finished Benjamin Banneker and Us and oh my goodness, it was simply amazing. The time, effort and research that went into writing this book is impressive. The author navigated the fine line of being a white woman writing about African Americans so very well; her sensitivity came through at each step. I loved all the story telling details creatively included which provided the narrative some context and brought these historical personages to life. I particularly enjoyed her interactions with her new found "cousins;" as a reader I felt I got to know and understand their own explorations and concerns about their shared past. It’s an incredible story and was so very easy to read that I had a hard time putting it down. I had planned on taking it on our trip to Florida but finished it well before we left. No wonder it's been positively reviewed in The NY Times, Washington Post, The New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times!
June 6, 2023
This was a very interesting book. There were complex emotions happening for the writer and for her family members, which was understandable, and it showed just how much work there is to do when researching your family's history.
This is not an easy family history to read, because of the running thread throughout - of America's particular race-defined policies and social practices that did and continue to impact all aspects of daily life. The unaddressed mental gymnastics that all people living with the boundaries of the U.S. do, have done, and are likely ingrained in their inherited memories, never cease to amaze.
But that's not to say that this is a heavy story of pain and struggle. There is much joy in this story. They joy of creating and being part a loving family, of achieving success and establishing a strong legacy, of sharing common memories and discovering new ones.
This is not an easy family history to read, because of the running thread throughout - of America's particular race-defined policies and social practices that did and continue to impact all aspects of daily life. The unaddressed mental gymnastics that all people living with the boundaries of the U.S. do, have done, and are likely ingrained in their inherited memories, never cease to amaze.
But that's not to say that this is a heavy story of pain and struggle. There is much joy in this story. They joy of creating and being part a loving family, of achieving success and establishing a strong legacy, of sharing common memories and discovering new ones.
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