{"product_id":"communities-of-kinship-antebellum-families-and-the-settlement-of-the-cotton-frontier-9780820325101","title":"Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier","description":"\u003cp\u003eTrained as both a genealogist and a historian  Carolyn Earle Billingsley shows how the analytic category of kinship can add new dimensions to our understanding of the American South. In Communities of Kinship  she studies a southern family-that of Thomas Keesee Sr.-to show how the biological  legal  and fictive kinship ties between him and some seven thousand of his descendants and relatives helped to shape the growth of the interior South. Keesee  who was born in Pittsylvania County  Virginia  left there with his family when he was still a boy and subsequently lived in South Carolina  Tennessee  Alabama  and Arkansas.  Drawing on Keesee family history  Billingsley reminds us that  contrary to the accepted notion of rugged individuals heeding the proverbial call of the open spaces  kindred groups accounted for most of the migration to the Souths interior and boundary lands. In addition  she discusses how  for antebellum southerners  the religious affiliation of ones parents was the most powerful predictor of ones own spiritual leanings  with marriage being the strongest motivation to change them. Billingsley also looks at the connections between kinship and economic and political power  offering examples of how Keesee family members facilitated and consolidated their influence and wealth through kin ties.  Piecing together a wide assortment of public and private records that pertain to the Keesee family and shed light on naming practices  residential propinquity  migration patterns  economic and political dealings  and religious interactions  Billingsley offers a model of innovation and subtle analysis for historians. This important new study makes a persuasive case that kinship  particularly in the study of the antebellum South  should be considered a discrete category of analysis complementary to  and potentially as powerful as  race  class  and gender.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647225421877,"sku":"ByrdShop_0820325104","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780820325101.jpg?v=1781690078","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/communities-of-kinship-antebellum-families-and-the-settlement-of-the-cotton-frontier-9780820325101","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}