Adele Logan Alexander

Alexander weaves a remarkable tale of her family's history as she painstakingly researches the history of African-American life during and after the civil war. A rarely told story about middle-class African-Americans, the story follows a free black man who emigrates from the United Kingdom to the United States to fight in the Union Navy and marries a runaway slave who nurses him after he is wounded. They move to Massachusetts and become prominent, middle-class citizens in thier town. Their children choose many paths to success including attending Howard University, working for civil rights leader, Booker T. Washington or as many blacks did, to "pass as white". The writing style is academic but personal enough to capture any reader interested in United States history.… (mer)

I like family history. I bought this book because of that but it is so much more. The family had modest beginnings in the United States; the first immigrant to the US was a seaman from Liverpool. He enlisted during the Civil War. The next generations of the family go on to become part of the black elite in the US. I had never read much about this group and it was fascinating reading. I enjoyed Homelands and Waterways so much that I went to the trouble of looking all over for the author's university email so that I could tell her what a good book she had written.… (mer)