LOVED IT: Slavery's Descendants edited by Dionne Ford and Jill Strauss

IMG DESCR: book cover illustration of a tree doubles as a cognitive illustration of a woman and man facing each other in profile.
Cover art: iStock/ChrisGorgio

What? The line items appraised property in an ancestor’s will are actually people?

This excellent and thought-provoking anthology brings together first-person accounts from people reckoning with their direct connection to slavery. In one essay, a researcher learns that a great-great grandfather—by all accounts a great guy!—drafted legislation to racialize slavery. In another, a group of acquaintances sleep in slave quarters to better empathize with their distant cousins.

The book is divided into four sections: Uncovering History, Making Connections, Working Toward Healing, and Taking Action.

In this way, it's not just a collection of essays that demonstrate the breadth and scope of slavery and the racism in our country today. It also offers solutions for healing (as practiced by the group Coming to the Table for those willing to work for it.

The mission statement for Coming to the Table reads as follows: "Working together to create a just and truthful society that acknowledges and seeks to heal from the racial wounds of the past, from slavery and the many forms of racism it spawned."

The same can be said for Slavery's Descendants. Available online and at your favorite indie.