Boy - Did this make me smile? Thank you so much for the review!
Two Books in One February 2, 2014
Ms. Blake has written an inviting story of days gone by when there was no concern for gradations of wealth or pigmentation, but where people -- rich and poor alike -- behaved with civility and decency to each other. On the one hand, the book is simply a narrative of the hospitable manner that the Vanderbilts were famous for -- whatever they built was ultimately built for everyone to share. They were a unique family, and whether one studies their behavior in Newport, where the children had responsibilities even in a tony mansion, or at the Biltmore house in Asheville, they always exhibited calm, politeness, and respect for fellow men.
This book captures that simpler time in western North Carolina, and gives the reader a flavor of what it was like to live more than 100 years ago in that region. Ms. Blake has drawn on her own family experiences and stories to recount a beautiful story for young girls.
But the book also captures another story -- that of how the poor, or the black families, or the poor and black families, lived in western North Carolina of the time. There were no large slave-owning plantations in the hardscrabble mountains of Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. It was no panacea for black families, who tended to be of the servant class, but everyone was a servant in one respect or the other, and they were treated with dignity.
The reaction of the Vanderbilts -- a wealthy family -- to the plight of a young, sick, black (although the book does not explicitly say so) orphan is worth study and might be a good historical teaching book for home-schoolers or third grade classrooms. The Vanderbilts took an orphan child in and helped to educate her. They gave her a job and a place to live. They re-assigned her duties when required. Those were all charitable responses. But would they be acceptable charitable responses today? Would we demand -- or expect -- more today? That the child be educated and sent to college? Or is civility and respect enough to let everyone flourish as best they can in the world in which they grow up?
However one answers those questions, this is a remarkable book for creating discussion and its silent lessons will stay with young readers.
This book captures that simpler time in western North Carolina, and gives the reader a flavor of what it was like to live more than 100 years ago in that region. Ms. Blake has drawn on her own family experiences and stories to recount a beautiful story for young girls.
But the book also captures another story -- that of how the poor, or the black families, or the poor and black families, lived in western North Carolina of the time. There were no large slave-owning plantations in the hardscrabble mountains of Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. It was no panacea for black families, who tended to be of the servant class, but everyone was a servant in one respect or the other, and they were treated with dignity.
The reaction of the Vanderbilts -- a wealthy family -- to the plight of a young, sick, black (although the book does not explicitly say so) orphan is worth study and might be a good historical teaching book for home-schoolers or third grade classrooms. The Vanderbilts took an orphan child in and helped to educate her. They gave her a job and a place to live. They re-assigned her duties when required. Those were all charitable responses. But would they be acceptable charitable responses today? Would we demand -- or expect -- more today? That the child be educated and sent to college? Or is civility and respect enough to let everyone flourish as best they can in the world in which they grow up?
However one answers those questions, this is a remarkable book for creating discussion and its silent lessons will stay with young readers.
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