John Durel with Martha Jones: Descendants: The Divided Lineage of a...

The Ivy presents a conversation between historians John Durel and Martha Jones, highlighting Durel's recent book Descendants: The Divided Lineage of a Louisiana Creole Family.

Based on extensive genealogical and archival research, Descendants traces evolving attitudes and laws regarding racial identity and relationships in New Orleans over 250 years through the lives of descendants of a French couple who arrived in the city in the 1750s.

Spanning eight generations of Durel's creole family, this work highlights the complexities of race in Louisiana, touching on those who were enslaved and those who were enslavers, those who were wealthy and those of fewer means, those who were of solely European descent and those with mixed European, African, and American Indian ancestry.

In her recent volume The Trouble of Color, Jones also delves into her family's past, journeying across centuries, from rural Kentucky and small-town North Carolina to New York City and its suburbs. The result is an “intimate and searching” (Natasha Trethewey) memoir of family, color, and being Black, white, and other in America.

We're thrilled at this fitting pairing of scholars and storytellers, and hope you can join us for a fascinating conversation.

Order DESCENDANTS here

Born in Louisiana and now living in Baltimore, local author John Durel grew up in a small, racially segregated city during the 1940s and ’50s. He left to go to college, did a stint in the navy, earned a PhD in American History, and had a career working in and consulting with museums nationwide and internationally.

Martha Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, professor of history, and a professor at the SNF Agora Institute at the Johns Hopkins University. A prizewinning author and editor of five books, most recently The Trouble of Color, she is past copresident of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and has contributed to the New York Times, Atlantic, and many other publications.

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