Americans of Royal Descent

by Charles Henry Browning

1969 · Genealogical Publishing Com

A standard work on royal genealogy, this collection contains nearly 200 pedigrees showing the lineal descent of hundreds of American families from the kings of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and France. The data derives from authoritative reference works, from family histories, and from manuscript pedigrees held in both public and private repositories. The indexes contain references to upwards of 3,000 surnames, many with multiple entries. One need only trace a surname through a lineage to connect with the Blood Royal. (Earlier editions of this work are not necessarily superseded by the seventh edition, but the seventh is held to be the most authoritative, and is therefore the most popular.)

The Making of a Racist

by Charles B. Dew

2016 · University of Virginia Press

In this powerful memoir, Charles Dew, one of America’s most respected historians of the South--and particularly its history of slavery--turns the focus on his own life, which began not in the halls of enlightenment but in a society unequivocally committed to segregation. Dew re-creates the midcentury American South of his childhood--in many respects a boy’s paradise, but one stained by Lost Cause revisionism and, worse, by the full brunt of Jim Crow. Through entertainments and "educational" books that belittled African Americans, as well as the living examples of his own family, Dew was indoctrinated in a white supremacy that, at best, was condescendingly paternalistic and, at worst, brutally intolerant. The fear that southern culture, and the "hallowed white male brotherhood," could come undone through the slightest flexibility in the color line gave the Jim Crow mindset its distinctly unyielding quality. Dew recalls his father, in most regards a decent man, becoming livid over a black tradesman daring to use the front, and not the back, door. The second half of the book shows how this former Confederate youth and descendant of Thomas Roderick Dew, one of slavery’s most passionate apologists, went on to reject his racist upbringing and become a scholar of the South and its deeply conflicted history. The centerpiece of Dew’s story is his sobering discovery of a price circular from 1860--an itemized list of humans up for sale. Contemplating this document becomes Dew’s first step in an exploration of antebellum Richmond’s slave trade that investigates the terrible--but, to its white participants, unremarkable--inhumanity inherent in the institution. Dew’s wish with this book is to show how the South of his childhood came into being, poisoning the minds even of honorable people, and to answer the question put to him by Illinois Browning Culver, the African American woman who devoted decades of her life to serving his family: "Charles, why do the grown-ups put so much hate in the children?"

Freedom's Detective

by Charles Lane

2019 · Harlequin

"A riveting narrative history about early attempts to crack down and even stamp out the Ku Klux Klan's reign of domestic terrorism . . . magnificent." —Douglas Brinkley, New York Times–bestselling author of American Moonshot In the years following the Civil War, a new battle began. Newly freed African American men had gained their voting rights and would soon have a chance to transform Southern politics. Former Confederates and other white supremacists mobilized to stop them. Thus, the KKK was born. After the first political assassination carried out by the Klan, Washington power brokers looked for help in breaking the growing movement. They found it in Hiram C. Whitley. He became head of the Secret Service, which had previously focused on catching counterfeiters and was at the time the government's only intelligence organization. Whitley and his agents led the covert war against the nascent KKK and were the first to use undercover work in mass crime—what we now call terrorism—investigations. Like many spymasters, Whitley also had a dark side. His penchant for skulduggery and dirty tricks ultimately led to his involvement in a conspiracy that would end his career and transform the Secret Service. Populated by intriguing historical characters—from President Grant to brave Southerners, both black and white, who stood up to the Klan— Freedom's Detective reveals the untold story of this complex, controversial hero and his central role in a long-lost chapter of American history. "A powerful, vitally important story . . . Lane brings it to life with not only vast amounts of research but with a remarkable gift for storytelling . . . the pages fly by." —Candice Millard, New York Times–bestselling author of The River of Doubt "Lane's account of Whitley's infiltration of the Klan is endlessly gripping." —NPR "American history buffs won't want to miss this one." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)