Summary of Imani Perry's South to America

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 After the raid, the pikes were left behind, and became collector’s items. They were eventually used in the Civil War to help free Black people and the Union Army.

#2 I decided to go to West Virginia and research the history of the Confederate flag. I was afraid that because of the current political climate, I would be met with resistance if I tried to understand why people held on to the Confederacy.

#3 At Harpers Ferry, I visited the site of the raid, which was preserved exactly as it was in the 1800s. It was a monument to the defeated, as it was here that John Brown and his comrades were captured and executed.

#4 The Niagara movement was a racial justice organization that gathered at Storer College in 1906. They were influential Black intellectuals, but their work was always driven by a passion that was often punished.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669368632

IRB Media

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Insights on Imani Perry's South to America

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

After the raid, the pikes were left behind, and became collector’s items. They were eventually used in the Civil War to help free Black people and the Union Army.

#2

I decided to go to West Virginia and research the history of the Confederate flag. I was afraid that because of the current political climate, I would be met with resistance if I tried to understand why people held on to the Confederacy.

#3

At Harpers Ferry, I visited the site of the raid, which was preserved exactly as it was in the 1800s. It was a monument to the defeated, as it was here that John Brown and his comrades were captured and executed.

#4

The Niagara movement was a racial justice organization that gathered at Storer College in 1906. They were influential Black intellectuals, but their work was always driven by a passion that was often punished.

#5

The terseness of history is hard to endure for long. I took a walk, and when I came across a Confederate reenactor, I asked him a question. He spoke with pride about his authentic glasses, but also about the hardships of authenticity.

#6

I met a man named Bob who was a reenactor and enthusiast of the Civil War. He told me that he’d been visiting Harpers Ferry all his life, and that he volunteered there all year round, even when the snow was piled up so high you couldn’t get in or out.

#7

In 1839, Washington Irving suggested that the nation’s name be changed. He thought that the name America was inadequate. He suggested that the country be named Appalachia.

#8

The last, and most important, consideration is the music of Appalachia. It is sonorous, liquid, and of full volume, and it is long enough for dignity. It is a vast territory that was the source of America’s growth in the industrial age.

#9

The Lewis brothers, who were supposed to be gentlemen, were revealed to be excessively violent. One died by suicide, while the other disappeared. The horror of killing is something the Lewis brothers could live with, but the shame of that skull coming back up and up, they could not.

#10

The history of Harpers Ferry is a carefully maintained history, authentic yet controlled. But there is a wild, haunting just beyond its borders.

#11

One piece of earned heroism is the miners’ place at the center of our history of organized labor. Miners understood their importance to industrialization, and would become central figures in the history of unions.

#12

The coal mines in West Virginia were dangerous for the workers, and many died from the disease silicosis. The Black miners were buried together in an open field, until a new building