LETTERS

The Myth of the Black Loyalist

Farah Peterson’s “The Patriot Slave” (Summer) is one of the best articles I have read on the subject of slavery. It took me back to the late 1940s, when, as a young African-American boy growing up in Florida, I would listen to my paternal grandmother, who was born in 1876, share with me some aspects of her life. Some of the things the author cites as examples of intimate violence obviously extended through the Reconstruction and Redemption periods because they were mentioned by my grandmother. Thus, to me, she—who had little or no formal education—has been vindicated after all these years. I congratulate Dr. Peterson for such a well-written, meaningful, and informative article. It touched me in so many ways.

GENERAL E. NEASMAN China Grove, North Carolina

Professor Peterson takes a sharp and necessary look at antebellum America, a period encompassing