A Dreadful Deceit: The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama's America

A Dreadful Deceit examines the concept of race in America through six biographical accounts spanning from 1656 to the 21st century. Through these individual stories, historian Jacqueline Jones chronicles how racial categorization and discrimination operated across different time periods and regions in American history. The narrative begins with an enslaved man in colonial Maryland and continues through key periods including the American Revolution, Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow era, and modern times. Each biographical subject represents a different facet of how racial ideology has been constructed and maintained in American society. The book combines detailed historical research with broader analysis of economic, political and social forces that shaped racial dynamics in each era. Jones draws from primary sources including court records, personal letters, newspapers, and government documents to reconstruct these lives and their historical contexts. Through these six interconnected stories, the book challenges the biological concept of race and demonstrates how racial categories have been strategically deployed as tools of social and economic control throughout American history. The work connects historical racial constructs to contemporary debates about race and inequality in America.

Readers appreciate Jones' detailed historical research and use of six individual stories to illustrate how race has been used as a tool of economic and social control. Many note the book effectively demonstrates that race is a social construct rather than a biological reality. Readers highlight the book's success in connecting historical examples to modern racial inequalities and power structures. Multiple reviewers mention the compelling personal narratives. Common criticisms include: - Dense academic writing style that can be difficult to follow - Occasional repetition of points - Some readers wanted more direct connections between the historical cases and contemporary issues Ratings: Goodreads: 3.9/5 (89 ratings) Amazon: 4.2/5 (31 ratings) One Amazon reviewer wrote: "The biographical sketches bring the historical analysis to life." A Goodreads reviewer noted: "Important information but the academic tone made it less accessible than it could have been."

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🔹 Jacqueline Jones won the Bancroft Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in American historical writing, for her 1985 book "Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow." 🔹 The book follows six different individuals across American history to illustrate how the concept of race was artificially constructed and used as a tool of economic exploitation. 🔹 One of the key narratives features Antonio, an enslaved man in colonial Maryland who was killed by his overseer in 1656, making it one of the earliest documented cases of lethal violence against an enslaved person in colonial America. 🔹 The author is the Ellen C. Temple Chair in Women's History and Mastin Gentry White Professor of Southern History at the University of Texas at Austin. 🔹 The book's coverage spans almost 400 years of American history, from the colonial period through Barack Obama's presidency, demonstrating the evolution and persistence of racial myths in American society.