Dr. Barry Cole teaches African American literature at the University of Alabama. His love of the subject matter sparked him to write a first historical novel, titled One Hundred Pearls. His story centers on the life of Sadie, who lived to be one hundred. Stolen from her African home in Gambia, she survived abduction and the experience of the Middle Passage to live on cotton and rice plantations before being removed to Tuscaloosa’s Tannehill Furnaces. Cole tells us that the Tannehill Slave Cemetery is essentially a mass grave where scores of human beings were buried under unchiseled stones gleaned from the nearby furnace quarry. Their names are mostly lost to history. One Hundred Pearls tells one woman’s story. The book cannot right history, but it gives poetic life to it. Come meet Barry Cole and enjoy his talk about his work. At The NewSouth Bookstore on Thursday, June 5 at 5:30pm.
Event Description:Dr. Barry Cole teaches African American literature at the University of Alabama. His love of the subject matter sparked him to write a first historical novel, titled One Hundred Pearls. His story centers on the life of Sadie, who lived to be one hundred. Stolen from her African home in Gambia, she survived abduction and the experience of the Middle Passage to live on cotton and rice plantations before being removed to Tuscaloosa’s Tannehill Furnaces. Cole tells us that the Tannehill Slave Cemetery is essentially a mass grave where scores of human beings were buried under unchiseled stones gleaned from the nearby furnace quarry. Their names are mostly lost to history. One Hundred Pearls tells one woman’s story. The book cannot right history, but it gives poetic life to it. Come meet Barry Cole and enjoy his talk about his work. At The NewSouth Bookstore on Thursday, June 5 at 5:30pm.