New Book :: Behind the Big House

Behind the Big House: Reconciling Slavery, Race, and Heritage in the U.S. South
African American Studies by Jodi Skipper
University of Iowa Press, March 2022

When residents and tourists visit sites of slavery, all too often the lives of slaveowners are centered, obscuring the lives of enslaved people. Behind the Big House is a candid, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to interpret the difficult history of slavery in the U.S. South. The book explores Jodi Skipper’s eight-year collaboration with the Behind the Big House program, a community-based model used at local historic sites to address slavery in the collective narrative of U.S. history and culture.