This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
I am a descendant of an enslaved cook and her owner, and half-brother, President James Madison. For more than 200 years, my family's credo, "Always remember--you're a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president," has been a source of inspiration and pride, but In 1990, when I became the family oral historian, I began to question why the credo should make me proud. For me, it resounded with the abuses of slavery. So I began a journey of discovery--of my ancestors, our country, and myself.
Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President's Black Family is a non-fiction American history memoir that chronicles the lineage and legacy of author Bettye Kearse's ancestry, a direct descendent, and the four-times great-granddaughter of Founding Father and fourth president of the United States, James Madison. But this is not a story about James Madison. It is something so much better. The book begins with the intimate backstory of Kearse's first known African-born ancestor, a slave named Mandy, whose heart-wrenching and violent subjugation is the maternal thread that weaves the story together. As each layer of delicate fabric is slowly connected, Kearse's pieces are brought to life as her generation's family griotte. She is the keyholder of oral family history that she augments with her own extensive research. And this is her story. “Always remember—you’re a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president.”
It has been way too long since I've had the great fortune to read a book that haunted me for weeks after finishing it. The Other Madisons required time to decompress in my mind, overwhelmed by the phenomenal writing of Bettye Kearse and the unpacking of thoughts around a president I thought I knew a lot about. It turns out, not so much. Kearse and her relationship with her mother, the griotte chosen to hold the sacred story before her, as well as her difficulty reconciling the regard held for her most famous family member and the fact that he owned human beings. What I loved in Kearse's account is that the focus is really on the origins of the enslaved; Mandy and her daughter Coreen, who is both James Madison's half-sister and mother to his enslaved son, Jim. From there the lines of the family tree are firmly drawn, interspersed with Kearse's fact-finding, its emotional toll, and the accounts of all those before who brought her here today. Kearse has written this glorious book and shared it with us, no longer the griotte of her family alone, but one that carries the heritage of a nation flowing through her veins and through the tip of her pen. I would give this book a whole bucket of stars if I could.
