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Description

Spencer Polk was born of an African-Indian slave woman known as Sally, and her master, Taylor Polk, a descendant of one of America’s first families and one of the earliest white settlers in the Arkansas Territory. A favored slave, Spencer Polk became a prosperous farmer and landowner in southwestern Arkansas and the founder of a numerous and energetic family. Since emancipation the family homestead he built on Muddy Fork Creek has housed succeeding generations and has drawn back those who sought their fortunes elsewhere. In this new paperback edition, Ruth Polk Patterson, a granddaughter of Spencer Polk who was born and raised in the log house he built, traces the life of Polk and his family from his birth in 1833 to the present generation. The skillful blending of folklore, history, and personal insight makes The Seed of Sally Good’n an excellent contribution to the long neglected history of middle-class African Americans.

Provides new and deeply authentic answers to old questions. . . . An important book. -- Journal of American Folklore

[Patterson’s] family history, past and present, is a salutary corrective of stereotyped images of black life. -- Times Literary Supplement

Publication Date

1985

Publisher

The University Press of Kentucky

Place of Publication

Lexington, KY

ISBN

9780813108766

eISBN

9780813149134

Keywords

African Americans, Arkansas, Polk family

Disciplines

African American Studies

The Seed Of Sally Good'n: A Black Family of Arkansas, 1833-1953
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