The Amalgamation Polka

An Awe-Inspiring Masterpiece:

It is the rare work of literature that has the ability to transfix the reader by the sheer brilliance of the author. Very few books have the ability to capture a mood in a way that allows the reader to actually feel that he is part of the scene he or she is reading about.

The Amalgamation Polka by Stephen Wright is precisely such a book.

The Amalgamation Polka describes the activities of the Fish and Maury Families of Upstate New York and South Carolina (respectively) in the period before and after the American Civil War.

Liberty Fish, is the son of extreme abolitionists living in New York. His mother is the estranged daughter of slave-holding parents in South Carolina. Liberty provides our link between the two radically different families as we travel with him during his childhood and as he grows up, enlists with the Union army and subsequently deserts his unit to search for his Grandparents.

The skill of this book is to provide the reader with a vivid account of the chaotic scenes before, during and after the civil war. The book opens with a scene of "bearded ladies dancing in the mud" who then chase a slave girl and molest her. The reader soon becomes aware that these are actually Union soldiers that have looted a mansion in the deep South (presumably during Sherman's March to the Sea). We do not encounter the "bearded ladies" again but this first glimpse allows the reader to know that we will be taken out of our usual comfort zone as we confront what might otherwise be stale stereotypes.

Ultimately, Stephen Wright is successful in describing how (in the face of monumental changes and horrific events) people change the way they look at the world to explain to themselves, why they should still hold on to their precious preconceived notions.

This is most aptly shown in his depiction of Liberty's Grandfather, Asa. A staunch advocate of slavery who has gone mad and is attempting to perform experiments to turn black slaves white in a strange attempt to justify his proclivity towards amalgamation.

Others have commented that the storyline is convoluted and rambling, but I feel that this is precisely the effect that Mr. Wright attempts to convey in order to describe the psychological upheaval American's faced in confronting and beginning to dismantle the system of slavery in this country. Indeed, the insightful reader will find much in this book which will shed light into the motivations of individuals in the current political arena.

After reading this book, I have become even more interested in digging deeper into the history of Civil War era in the U.S. My next book will be The March by E. L. Doctorow.

An excellent set of books to read before The Amalgamation Polka would be Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Red Badge of Courage. Both of these books capture the sense of upheaval that is perfected by Wright in The Amalgamation Polka.

Up From Slavery

Author: Booker T. Washington
Date Published: 1901

There appears to be new interest in the life and works of Booker T Washington. A new anthology by Rebecca Carroll entitled Uncle Tom or New Negro? : African Americans Reflect on Booker T. Washington and UP FROM SLAVERY 100 Years Later includes the thoughts of a number of prominent African Americans regarding the importance of Booker T. Washington.

With such a provocative title, I couldn't help but dust off my old copy of Up From Slavery to see if there are any useful insights from the dawn of the twentieth century which would be applicable in the 21st century.

Traditionally, there was always a debate regarding his view of the best route for African-American progress. This debate has contrasted Booker T. Washington's advocacy for self-help and practical education against the aggressive advocacy of W.E.B. Dubois for social and political equality.

It is important to place Mr. Washington's work in perspective in terms of the times in which it was written. The American civil war was over. The conflict was (and is) the costliest war for the United States in terms of lives lost. The process of reconstruction was overwhelming and flawed on many levels. Mr. Washington does a good job at describing the fact that many African Americans rushed into political and academic puruits prematurely in the wake of Slavery.

The combination of poorly prepared and unethical individuals in these fields likely was responsible for a number of problems faced by former slaves. Mr. Washington's theory was that through practical education and trades, that African-Americans would be able to prove themselves as being worthy of citizenship in the United States.

While I do agree with Mr. Washington that there is much be said for individuals who have merit and equip themselves with skills necessary to function in modern day society, it is also apparent that Mr. Washington,autobiography, Up f's view was overly optimistic and ultimately limiting.

As a college student, I firmly aligned myself with the philosophies of W.E.B. Dubois ad detailed in The Souls of Black Folk (1903),

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University, disputed the main principle of Washington's political program, the idea that voting and civil rights were less important to black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic self-sufficiency. Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: “The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.”

"African American literature" Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. [Accessed February 9, 2006].

Ultimately, all of the hard work and merit in the world has not been enough to eliminate race prejudice and discrimination of African-Americans. While the actions of Mr. Washington as outlined in his autobiography are clearly laudable; they are (in retrospect) inadequate in terms of achieving equality and justice for minorities in the United States.