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Black Nor White The Saga Term Paper

Though the color boundaries were frequently blurred and the circumstances for all were divergent and difficult, there was a clear sense of the morality of the eras not completely dictating the events and eventualities. In a sense the Jim Crow era sprang from this clouded moral code. Jim Crow was an attempt by whites, in both the south and the north to reassert the color lines. Even though years of intermarriages and variable legal and social statuses had proven much stronger than the original social demands of the men like Ballwell, who is said to have been simply jealous of John, because he got to Mocha before he had the chance, when they stated that colors didn't mix. There were in fact so many intertwining genetic paths that it is not a wonder that the concerns of "purists" did not get officiated much earlier in time. When early on in the novel John tells Mr. Ballwell that he loves Mocha and, "That's most important...

Ballwell." (8) the reader is clear that color lines are blurred by opportunity and sometimes love, not pure self-righteous morality.
The book affirms that the rather black and white idea of race anywhere in the nation is a false sense of history. The story of this family, though often confusing is colorful and full of adventure, wealth, success, massive failures but especially blurred color lines. The work says more about the real system of slavery than any I have read, thus far and it is a joy to travel through the many generations of this family, a family probably not much like many others of southern origin, with all the secrets of the past coming back to call on the next generations, including our own.

Joseph E. Holloway, Neither Black nor White: The Saga of an American Family, the Complete Story New World African Press, 2006.

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This story, has countless reminders of the varied degrees of morality that existed in the slave owning culture. Though the white wealthy made everyone aware of their opinions about blacks, slaves and people of other races the morality that dictated did not succeed to wholly keep the races from falling in love with one another, as individuals, marrying outside their race, either legally or illegally or having children together. This is evident in the entire history of the family, from the very first interracial marriage between John and Mocha to the later marriages of Celia to white men. Though the color boundaries were frequently blurred and the circumstances for all were divergent and difficult, there was a clear sense of the morality of the eras not completely dictating the events and eventualities. In a sense the Jim Crow era sprang from this clouded moral code. Jim Crow was an attempt by whites, in both the south and the north to reassert the color lines. Even though years of intermarriages and variable legal and social statuses had proven much stronger than the original social demands of the men like Ballwell, who is said to have been simply jealous of John, because he got to Mocha before he had the chance, when they stated that colors didn't mix. There were in fact so many intertwining genetic paths that it is not a wonder that the concerns of "purists" did not get officiated much earlier in time. When early on in the novel John tells Mr. Ballwell that he loves Mocha and, "That's most important and not the high morality that no one practices, Mr. Ballwell." (8) the reader is clear that color lines are blurred by opportunity and sometimes love, not pure self-righteous morality.

The book affirms that the rather black and white idea of race anywhere in the nation is a false sense of history. The story of this family, though often confusing is colorful and full of adventure, wealth, success, massive failures but especially blurred color lines. The work says more about the real system of slavery than any I have read, thus far and it is a joy to travel through the many generations of this family, a family probably not much like many others of southern origin, with all the secrets of the past coming back to call on the next generations, including our own.

Joseph E. Holloway, Neither Black nor White: The Saga of an American Family, the Complete Story New World African Press, 2006.
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