On Wednesday, February 4 we had the pleasure of having Dr. Edda Fields-Black discusses her book Combee. Last semester I actually had the opportunity to read her book and lead a book talk about it, so it was really cool to hear her speak in person. Some things that I really enjoyed from the talk is the emphasis on storytelling through means such as pension records and how she pieced them together to create that story. It was interesting to learn that she had spent time living on the Combee rice plantations and how her time there further helped her to understand the landscape of the plantation, as well as the spiritual impact it had on her. She really engaged the audience by giving more context about her three main characters and why she decided to choose them. Also it’s impressive the amount of history that can come out of those characters. Overall the audience seemed to enjoy the talk and it was a full house with plenty of questions at the end ranging from questions about her childhood to questions about future books. Another thing I appreciate about her work is the emphasis on how much the stories of the enslaved are untold and how that history is engrained in the environment. I think it’s also important to acknowledge how hard it is to tell the stories of enslaved people because of how undocumented enslaved people’s lives often were. Dr. Fields-Black’s ability to piece together these stories and present them is one of the many reasons it was so exciting to have her as a guest. One last thing that I took away from the talk is that history is revolutionary and knowing it well is a way to advocate for others during times of political uncertainty and oppression.
-Da’Mirah Vinson