Page 10 - Demo

Ties that Bind
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desertion and cases of child neglect during this period. However, the work demonstrates that the social ills facing the family did not overturn the evidence of activism by so many, in advancing the welfare of their own. Rather, as conveyed in the theme that is central to this book, Ties that Bind, the fact that so many displayed evidence of family advocacy in the worst of times, as well as in the best of times, affirms the depth and endurance of the kinship ties by which they were bound.
Significance of the research for Caribbean historiography
The book makes a significant contribution to Caribbean historiography, in that it enriches scholarship on family history. It signals a shift away from the traditional focus on family forms and household structure by historians of the family, and assesses, instead, the relationships and interactions within
black family networks. Not much had been written previously on this aspect of nineteenth-century Jamaican social history.
An ongoing and consequential project among social historians within the Caribbean region has been to examine, where possible, the past through the lens of the formerly oppressed. This enterprise remains crucial to the unfolding social history of the region, particularly because a great deal of the documentation of our past was generated by the, then, politically and socially dominant elite. Through its extensive utilisation of the testimony of ordinary black Jamaicans, this work enables a meaningful engagement with this project, and makes an important contribution to our cultural consciousness, while continuing the momentous effort to give voice to the Black experience in the post-slavery Caribbean.
Significance for national and cultural identity and development
Ties that Bind presents a timely and appropriate historical background to several of the issues that stereotype family life and values among black Jamaicans today, and, in this respect, engages readers in perspectives which are, at times, significantly different from some of the current negative perceptions, such as those regarding the family values of black Jamaican males. Therefore, this book makes a significant contribution to our cultural consciousness of who we are as a people, because it underscores that who we are today can never be totally divergent from the legacies of the past. The stories of black parents who, by their own persistence and sacrifice, ensured that their children had access to health care and education, challenge contemporary stereotyping of black parents as irresponsible, uncaring and neglectful. Importantly, in today’s context, when social researchers and media commentators are still focussed on issues of the “invisible and marginal” black male in family settings, this book presents strong evidence of male activism on behalf of family in our historical development. Indeed, his own testimony and that of others, locates the black male in the period 1834 to 1882, as a significant and central father, husband/partner, grandfather, son or brother, both in terms of his image of self, as well as in his fulfilment of these family roles.
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