The Invisibles Book Report Jesse J Holland was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Holland attended University of Mississippi, where he received a liberal arts degree with an emphasis on journalism. One unique fact about Hollands time spent at Ole Miss was he was the second African American to be editor of the daily campus newspaper, The Daily Mississippian. His educational background didn’t stop in Oxford, Holland went on to receive his Master of fine arts in creative nonfiction from Goucher College. Holland is the first ever African American to be a Supreme court correspondent for a major media organization and has been a longtime reporter for the Associated Press, where he has covered the White House, Congress as well as serving as its
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His first main argument was that the slaves in the white house deserved credit for what they had done throughout history. He clearly states “This book is about the enslaved people behind those presidents the ones who made their beds, cooked their food, prepared their clothes, answered the door and in general made life at the white housework while the presidents and their families took care of the business of America.”(pg.3) Another one of Hollands main arguments is that he wanted to unveil to the American public that even some of the United States most notoriously known anti-slavery presidents and leaders even owned slaves. For example Ulysses S. Grant leader of the United States who fought to end legal, human slavery in fact was a slave owner himself. Thomas Jefferson was another great example as well, Holland stated in the book “He inherited fifty-two slaves from his father’s estate when he turned twenty-one, none of which he freed during his lifetime. He also proposed laws as a Virginia legislator that would have banned or severely restricted blacks from entering or living in Virginia, and wrote legislation that would have banished children whose father was of African origin and exiled any white woman who had a child with a black man. …show more content…
Holland uses a chronological order when introducing new information in the book, but also uses flashbacks from the book to help support new evidence he is conveying to the reader. In class we discussed a lot of issues and important information that dealt with slavery in the past. I personally think if Holland were to have sat in for a class or two he would’ve agreed on just about everything we went over, especially if he would’ve heard the story about Professor Goines chewing out a guy at the hotel bar for using a racial slur. Although this book was nothing but impressive, there is one thing that I would’ve changed. I would’ve included more information on more presidents and their encounters with slaves in the white house rather than a select few. Holland used close to a hundred sources throughout the novel, varying from historical magazines, websites and other novels. After reading the novel I would have to definitely say that is very readable and well written, in fact within the first 6 pages of the novel I was already hooked and didn’t want to put it down. Overall, I was more than impressed with the book itself, the subject that was covered kept me intrigued the whole time since I was constantly learning interesting facts about the presidents and their slaves. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about the side of US history that isn’t
His first main argument was that the slaves in the white house deserved credit for what they had done throughout history. He clearly states “This book is about the enslaved people behind those presidents the ones who made their beds, cooked their food, prepared their clothes, answered the door and in general made life at the white housework while the presidents and their families took care of the business of America.”(pg.3) Another one of Hollands main arguments is that he wanted to unveil to the American public that even some of the United States most notoriously known anti-slavery presidents and leaders even owned slaves. For example Ulysses S. Grant leader of the United States who fought to end legal, human slavery in fact was a slave owner himself. Thomas Jefferson was another great example as well, Holland stated in the book “He inherited fifty-two slaves from his father’s estate when he turned twenty-one, none of which he freed during his lifetime. He also proposed laws as a Virginia legislator that would have banned or severely restricted blacks from entering or living in Virginia, and wrote legislation that would have banished children whose father was of African origin and exiled any white woman who had a child with a black man. …show more content…
Holland uses a chronological order when introducing new information in the book, but also uses flashbacks from the book to help support new evidence he is conveying to the reader. In class we discussed a lot of issues and important information that dealt with slavery in the past. I personally think if Holland were to have sat in for a class or two he would’ve agreed on just about everything we went over, especially if he would’ve heard the story about Professor Goines chewing out a guy at the hotel bar for using a racial slur. Although this book was nothing but impressive, there is one thing that I would’ve changed. I would’ve included more information on more presidents and their encounters with slaves in the white house rather than a select few. Holland used close to a hundred sources throughout the novel, varying from historical magazines, websites and other novels. After reading the novel I would have to definitely say that is very readable and well written, in fact within the first 6 pages of the novel I was already hooked and didn’t want to put it down. Overall, I was more than impressed with the book itself, the subject that was covered kept me intrigued the whole time since I was constantly learning interesting facts about the presidents and their slaves. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about the side of US history that isn’t