So the earliest years of our country, the population was quite mixed. I mean the whole melting pot idea didn’t come in with the nineteenth century; it was here all along.

Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2012-04-09 03:43Z by Steven

One thing that I learned while doing all my research was that there was a lot that I hadn’t learned in school.  For instance, I learned the Southeast was just a empty wilderness when the settlers arrived at Jamestown. But in my research I discovered that it was crawling with people. Hundreds of thousands of natives. If you look at the maps of their villages they’re all over the place. There were also a lot of European and Africans who were there for various reasons and they were mostly young men, so they were mixing and melding with the native women. So the earliest years of our country, the population was quite mixed. I mean the whole melting pot idea didn’t come in with the nineteenth century; it was here all along. So, these earliest people, as Britain won out over Spain and Portugal, everyone wanted to be English, so everybody denied the rest of their heritage.

Lisa Alther, “Author Explores Racial Mixing In New Historical Novel,” VPR News, Vermont Public Radio, (March, 14, 2012): 00:01:45-00:02:45. http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/93768/author-explores-racial-mixing-in-new-historical-no/.

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Author Explores Racial Mixing In New Historical Novel

Posted in Audio, History, Tri-Racial Isolates, United States on 2012-04-08 22:53Z by Steven

Author Explores Racial Mixing In New Historical Novel

VPR News
Vermont Public Radio
2012-03-14

Neal Charnoff, Reporter; Local Host
All Things Considered

We last heard from writer Lisa Alther in 2007, when she spoke with VPR’s Neal Charnoff about her memoir, Kinfolks.

Alther has returned to fiction in a big way with her epic historical novel, Washed In The Blood.

The book is a three-part multi-generational novel that combines romance with a study of Appalachian culture and racial mixing in the south.

Lisa Alther, who shares time between Vermont and her native Tennessee has written seven books.

Listen to the interview (00:07:33) here or download it here.

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