Fox Creek - Confronting America's Uncomfortable History with M.E. Torrey

About this episode

M.E. Torrey discusses her novel 'Fox Creek' and the importance of confronting America's uncomfortable history regarding slavery.

M.E. Torrey - Author of "Fox Creek," a historical novel exploring slavery in the antebellum South In this powerful 51-minute conversation, author M.E. Torrey discusses her critically acclaimed novel "Fox Creek," which confronts the whitewashed narratives of plantation history. Torrey shares her journey from writing children's books to tackling one of America's most difficult historical periods, and why honest conversations about race and history are more important than ever. The Genesis of Fox Creek Torrey's eye-opening visit to Louisiana plantations in the 1990s Encountering tours that completely omitted slave narratives Three years of intensive research before writing the first sentence The challenge of finding authentic slave narratives vs. abundant plantation owner records Research Revelations The shocking diaries of James Henry Hammond (Governor of South Carolina) and Bennett Barrow How "ordinary people" justified extraordinary harm The concept of willful blindness among slave owners who considered themselves good people The FDR Writers Project interviews with ex-slaves from the 1930s Writing Approach Deliberately avoiding author judgment to…

People in this episode

Host: Jr Sparrow

Guest: M.E. Torrey

Topics covered

• slavery
• antebellum South
• historical narrative
• race
• literature
• plantation history

Keywords

• slavery
• historical novel
• plantation history
• race
• M.E. Torrey
• Fox Creek
• James Henry Hammond
• Bennett Barrow
• FDR Writers Project

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FDR Writers Project

Books & works: Fox Creek

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