Slaves in the Family

Slaves in the Family
By Edward Ball — National Book Award Winner

In this acclaimed and deeply personal work of history, Edward Ball confronts the legacy of his own family's past as one of the largest slaveholding families in South Carolina. Tracing the Ball family's rice plantations across generations, the author sets out to find and tell the stories of the people his ancestors enslaved — and to seek out their descendants living today.

Part family history, part investigative journey, and part reckoning with America's most painful inheritance, the book weaves together archival research, oral history, and face-to-face encounters with the descendants of both the enslaved and the enslavers. The result is a moving and unflinching exploration of slavery's enduring imprint on individual lives and on the nation as a whole.

Winner of the National Book Award, this landmark work has been widely praised — called "powerful" by reviewers and recognized as a brilliant, gripping contribution to American letters. The striking cover, with its bold red title panel surrounded by historical portraits, reflects the book's central mission: restoring names, faces, and humanity to those history tried to forget.