The Manor: Three Centuries At A Slave Plantation On Long Island (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
I enjoyed many things about this book. The author is clearly madly in love with everything connected with Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island and has had a blast researching every aspect of it: the family's lengthy and continuous history in that location, their origins in England and Amsterdam, the Puritans' persecution of the Quakers in the colonies, the family's role in the Atlantic slave, rum, and tobacco trade, their changing religious views, the archaeology and landscape history of the Sylvester Manor, and the knowledge that the history of local Native Americans and African Americans is intertwined with that of the manor family. And, well-grounded in the extensive research she's done over many years, Mac Griswold writes impressionistically, catching your attention at the beginning of a chapter, as though taking your arm on a stroll around the place, pointing out its trees, the places where the outbuildings used to be, the cemetery where African Americans and Indians are buried. She's an enthusiastic companion and she has left no stone unturned, no family document unread, in her attempt to bring this manor's history to life. And the book is excellent as a kind of bird's eye view of New England history, especially from the colonial period to the Civil War. And yet there's an irony in this book whose subtitle leads readers to believe that the focus might be more on slavery than on the manor itself: If only because enslaved people were considered no more than property, the few written records from this manor come from their white owners or from obituaries in newspapers, so even when the author is able to come up with a few of the slaves' names, she's unable to make the individuals come to life or to focus in more than a general way on the actual roles they played in supplying the labor for this manor house. Even more elusive are the Native Americans who preceded them, of course. This is all understandable in view of the fragmentary documentation available, but still somewhat disappointing to someone more interested in their lives than in the manor itself or in its owners' lives. The Manor is a non-friction story of a Manor on an island in New York State. Mac Griswold presents the story of the family of Nathaniel Slyvester that lived in the house from 1700's to 2006. Nathaniel was the owner of ships that provided the south with slave and also took the South's crops to Europe. Mac Griswold is a historical landscaper - during her study of the Manor's history she was able to have archaeologist also study the land to find where the different building were located. Some chapters were a slow read, but if you love history, I would recommend this book. The Second house is now open for tours during part of the year. You can also see the author inviewed on Book TV website.
What do You think about The Manor: Three Centuries At A Slave Plantation On Long Island (2013)?
Started book but too much fact history vs story so will not read
—kenny
This book was too much history and not enough story for me.
—siikaakode
