Ann Hite Macon: Mercer University Press, 2022 ISBN: 9780881468526 243 p. (Pbk) $20.0

McCarty Smith, Kathelene

English

DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University

The Southeastern Librarian Volume 71 Issue 1 Article 8 Spring 5-1-2023 Haints on Black Mountain Kathelene McCarty Smith University of North Carolina at Greensboro Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/seln  Part of the Information Literacy Commons, Scholarly Communication Commons, and the Scholarly Publishing Commons Recommended Citation McCarty Smith, Kathelene (2023) "Haints on Black Mountain," The Southeastern Librarian: Vol. 71: Iss. 1, Article 8. Available at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/seln/vol71/iss1/8 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Southeastern Librarian by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@kennesaw.edu.  35 Haints on Black Mountain  Ann Hite Macon: Mercer  University Press, 2022 ISBN: 9780881468526 243 p.  (Pbk)  $20.00  If you are from the South, you have certainly heard of “haint blue” — a color that adorns porches and sometimes entire houses, to keep spirits at bay. In this book of intertwining stories by Ann Hite, haints appear in the form of appari-tions that encourage, support, comfort, and even warn generations of family members in the rural Black Mountain region of western North Carolina. Ancestral spirits weave a continuous thread throughout the book, uniting themes of nature, home, and family. While specters inhabit every chapter, these are not merely ghost stories, but shared narratives of life on Black Mountain span-ning a period of 160 years.   The book is divided into three parts —Wind, A Little Removed, and Women to Be Reck-oned With—each signaling a separate collection of stories featuring generational ghostly hauntings set against the backdrop of the Appalachia. In the first chapter, “Wrinkle in the Air,” the reader is introduced to Polly Murphy, a young Cherokee woman who will begin the dynastic chronicle of these stories. Polly connects strongly with nature and the souls that wander the mountain. She un-derstands that the wind will soon blow in change for her tribe and her environment. Change came in the form of Samuel Richard Riley, who is gath-ering the history of the Cherokees and alerts the tribe of the government’s plan to remove them from their land. A native of Ireland, Riley also re-lates strongly to nature and the mountains, creat-ing a deep bond with Polly. She understands that by breaking tradition and marrying Riley, she is not only committing to a new life, but also to the coming change for her people.        Nature continues as a theme in subsequent chapters, focusing on the severe storms that are prevalent on the mountain. Just as Polly dreaded losing her tribe’s homeland, in successive narra-tives her descendants fear losing their homes to storms and floods. In “The Root Cellar,” her grandson has lost the ability, or the desire, to lis-ten to nature. Despite this, Polly’s spirit joins those of the mountain, warning him of the coming storm. He learns too late that he should have lis-tened. In the final chapter of Wind, “Ghost Dog,” it is the spirit of a loyal pet that provides warning and rescue, finally being able to save a child in the present, just as he was not able to save his young charge in the past.   While storms connect the first chapters, the second section, A Little Removed, includes stories with characters that are either physically or mentally removed from their Black Mountain home. It begins with an account of Emmaline and her mother traveling from North Carolina to Geor-gia to stay with Emmaline’s grandmother. Emma-line’s mother finds employment at the Georgia Central State Hospital, which is known to be haunted. Emmaline soon finds that her new home of Milledgeville is also haunted by those who have unfinished business on this earth. Subsequent chapters are interwoven with spirits of family members and neighbors offering warnings and even words of wisdom.  Such themes are illustrat-ed in “Dancers on the Horizons,” where ethereal comforters help Emmaline come of age, and deal with her seemingly uncaring mother.   Part Three, titled Women to Be Reckoned With, involves stories that concern women who gain strength through adversity and challenges. Some of these struggles are of their own making while some come about as a result of their envi-ronment. “The Dance Lesson” tells the story of a mother and daughter who moved to Black Moun-tain from Atlanta in 1935. Fifteen-year-old Jean Logan meets two local boys, Carlton and James, who give her confidence and friendship. Yet it is Carlton’s mother who truly influences Jean and helps her evolve into the woman who she was meant to be. Strong women continue to dominate the section as the author intertwines past family connections with current ones. The spider, a known teacher and protector of wisdom in Chero-kee traditions, is the catalyst in “A Spider’s Bite.” Miss Shirley, a New Orleans conjurer, teaches Jeannie Ray magic for the good of others, but in-stead, the young girl spins her web to further her own ambitions. The last chapters involve women who rely on their personal strength to get through hardship, such as the death of a loved one, or one who is not so loved.  The Southeastern Librarian Vol. 71, No. 1 Reviews  36   Haints on Black Mountain is a good choice for those who are interested in Appalachian history, and culture, as well as those who like a good ghost story. Ann Hite captures the feel and lore of the North Carolina Mountains. Although the first section is the strongest, Hite’s prose en-gages and entertains throughout the book as she leads the reader through the compelling stories of the people and spirits of the region.    Kathelene McCarty Smith, University of North Carolina at Greensboro   No Common Ground: Confederate Monu-ments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice  Karen L. Cox Chapel Hill: University of  North Carolina Press, 2021 ISBN:9781469662671 224 p.  $24.00  (Hbk)  Since the end of the Civil War, thousands of monuments have been built to memorialize the “Lost Cause,” which remembers Confederate sol-diers “as defenders not of slavery but of the region and their race” (p. 18). In her new book, Karen L. Cox explores the legacy of these monuments and the fight to find common ground over the statues, the spaces they fill, and what they represent. Initially built in commemoration of lost Confederate soldiers, the statues’ subjects and dedications became imbued with Lost Cause rhet-oric and ideation. The memorial statues enabled many white southerners to express and share their version of Dixie, while many of their Black com-patriots came to view the monuments as symbols of oppression as well as the glorification of men who fought to preserve the institution of slavery. Cox begins the narrative with an introduc-tion of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), founded in Nashville in the late 19th centu-ry with the goal of preserving and honoring Con-federate culture. The education of children with a pro-southern message and the building of monu-ments helped teach and reinforce that message. Construction of these memorials has waxed and waned over the years, but there have been new monuments erected in every decade since the Civil War. The most recent surge has occurred in the 21st century, with 35 new pro-Confederate monu-ments having been built during this time. While this new construction is often attributed to the same desire to protect southern heritage as that espoused by the UDC, Cox attempts to correct this narrative by explaining the full history of white and Black interpretations of these statues. The author delves into the rationale of those who think the monuments should remain in place, as well as the justifications by those who believe they should be removed. Criticism of these statues is as old as the monuments themselves. On Confederate Memori-al Day in 1887, a monument honoring John Cal-houn, a prominent politician and defender of states’ right to preserve slavery, was unveiled in Charleston, South Carolina. The statue was derid-ed by Black Charlestonians who considered the statue to be a personal affront and who therefore defaced the statue. Cox provides many examples of the statues that have been erected since and explains the progression of attitudes about them during Reconstruction, through World Wars I and II, in the midst of the Civil Rights era, and into the 21st century. The final chapter of the book focuses on the recent fights over the removal of these monu-ments. Cox begins with the removal of the confed-erate flag (not a statue per se, but a monument, nevertheless, with many of the same attributes as the stone testaments) outside the South Carolina state capitol in Columbia, a battle that intensified after the 2015 murder of nine Black members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. The author also scrutinizes the 2017 Charlottesville rally in which participants, under the guise of preventing the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, marched, chanted, and violently demonstrated, ultimately leading to the murder of a counter protester. Several other recent cases across the southern United States also provide examples of the contentious arguments over these markers. No Common Ground not only provides a thorough history of Confederate monuments, but also a timely one. Current events including police violence and the Black Lives Matter movement have highlighted issues surrounding race in the United States, and Cox has built a strong founda-The Southeastern Librarian Vol. 71, No. 1 Reviews 

Haints on Black Mountain

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