Synopses & Reviews
"Miles paints the most detailed picture yet published of the lives of the black slaves to the Cherokee."
-Bay State Banner "Illustrates that Cherokee slavery differed significantly from that practiced by white Americans. . . . Slavery helped prove to the United States government that they [Cherokees] had acculturated and thus had become 'civilized.' Recommended."
-Library Journal "The only comprehensive book about life on the Vann Plantation from the perspective of examining not only Cherokee history . . . but also black history, the roles of Moravian missionaries and white history."
-The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA "[Provides] rich detail from the newly translated diaries and letters of German missionaries."
-Diverse Education "The fullest published portrait yet of slaves to the Cherokee."
-The Defenders Online "This is one of the most thoughtful, beautifully written works of history on any topic that I have read in a long while. Miles has taken a complex set of issues that have been long obscured by a desire for a romantic and guilt-free past, and with grace and sensitivity, has completely re-written history."
-Leslie M. Harris, Emory University
Review
"This is one of the most thoughtful, beautifully written works of history on any topic that I have read in a long while. Miles has taken a complex set of issues that have been long obscured by a desire for a romantic and guilt-free past, and with grace and sensitivity, has completely re-written history."
-Leslie M. Harris, Emory University
Review
"[Provides] rich detail from the newly translated diaries and letters of German missionaries."
-Diverse Education
Review
"A welcome addition to the histories of Native America, slavery, African America, gender, the early republic, and, perhaps most significantly, public history."
-The American Historical Review
Review
"Illustrates that Cherokee slavery differed significantly from that practiced by white Americans. . . . Slavery helped prove to the United States government that they [Cherokees] had acculturated and thus had become 'civilized.' Recommended."
-Library Journal
Review
"[Miles'] book is accessible and well written, its story important. Highly recommended."
-Choice
Review
"A compelling narrative that speaks to the core issues of identity in the American South."
-North Carolina Historical Review
Review
"Miles's research is solid; her writing is clear; and the story she tells is both important and compelling.
The House on Diamond Hill is an exemplary book."
-Journal of Southern History
Review
"The only comprehensive book about life on the Vann Plantation from the perspective of examining not only Cherokee history . . . but also black history, the roles of Moravian missionaries and white history."
-The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA
Review
"A meticulously researched and elegantly written book that is accessible to nonacademic readers as well as scholars and researchers of Native American and African American history."
-Public Historian
Review
"[Miles'] ventures into new realms of research and analysis will be greatly appreciated by scholars examining the transformation of the Native South into the Old South."
-Georgia Historical Quarterly
Review
"Challenges us to look past the plantation's exquisite grounds and fully examine the worlds of the people who once lived and labored there. It is a must read for anyone interested in the histories of slavery, gender, Native America, and colonialism."
-West Virginia History
Review
"[A] fascinating book."
-Journal of American History
Synopsis
At the turn of the nineteenth century, James Vann, a Cherokee chief and entrepreneur, established Diamond Hill, the most famous plantation in the southeastern Cherokee Nation. In this first full-length study to reconstruct the history of the plantation, Tiya Miles tells the story of Diamond Hill's founding, its flourishing, its takeover by white land-lottery winners on the eve of the Cherokee Removal, its decay, and its renovation in the 1950s. Vividly written and extensively researched, this history illuminates gender, class, and cross-racial relationships on the southern frontier.
Synopsis
At the turn of the nineteenth century, James Vann, a Cherokee chief and entrepreneur, established Diamond Hill, the most famous plantation in the southeastern Cherokee Nation. In this first full-length study to reconstruct the history of the plantation, Tiya Miles tells the story of Diamond Hill's founding, its flourishing, its takeover by white land-lottery winners on the eve of the Cherokee Removal, its decay, and its renovation in the 1950s. Vividly written and extensively researched, this history illuminates gender, class, and cross-racial relationships on the southern frontier.
About the Author
Tiya Miles is associate professor of history, American culture, Afro-American studies, and Native American studies at the University of Michigan. Her first book, Ties That Bind: The Story of An Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom, won the Organization of American Historians' Turner Prize and the American Studies Association's Romero Prize.