African American Literature,  Book Reviews,  Europe,  History,  Immigration,  Latin America/Caribbean,  NON FICTION

Sugar in the Blood by Andrea Stuart ** (of 4)

Sugar-in-the-BloodWhile investigating her genealogy, the author, Andrea Stuart, learns she is the descendent of both a slave owner and a slave.  She gets all the way back to the first British settlers of Barbados in the Sixteenth Century, finding a great, great (probably a dozen greats) grandfather who left Britain in search of bounty and who manages to scratche out just enough to start a lineage of sugar plantation owners.  It’s an interesting idea for a book, because Stuart has enough information to fill in the gaps for a dozen generations.  She covers politics, slavery, agriculture, and adventure.  Unfortunately, it reads like a long Master’s thesis.  A lot of research, but not that much fun to read.