{"title":"Rachel Jamison Webster","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRachel Jamison Webster\u003c\/strong\u003e crafts works that blend biography with reflective memoir, offering intimate and thoughtful explorations of notable figures and their lasting impact. Her writing invites readers to delve deeply into personal histories while connecting with broader cultural themes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough titles such as \u003cem\u003eBenjamin Banneker and Us\u003c\/em\u003e, Webster illuminates lives both complex and inspiring, weaving narrative and memory to provide profound insight into identity and legacy within the framework of biography and memoir.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"benjamin-banneker-and-us-by-rachel-jamison-webster-9781250871800","title":"Benjamin Banneker and Us","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA family reunion gives way to an unforgettable genealogical quest as relatives reconnect across lines of colour, culture, and time, putting the past into urgent conversation with the present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1791, Thomas Jefferson hired a Black man to help survey Washington, DC. That man was Benjamin Banneker, an African American mathematician, a writer of almanacs, and one of the greatest astronomers of his generation. Banneker then wrote what would become a famous letter to Jefferson, imploring the new president to examine his hypocrisy, as someone who claimed to love liberty yet was an enslaver. More than two centuries later, Rachel Jamison Webster, an ostensibly white woman, learns that this groundbreaking Black forefather is also her distant relative.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eActing as a storyteller, Webster draws on oral history and conversations with her DNA cousins to imagine the lives of their shared ancestors across eleven generations, among them Banneker's grandparents, an interracial couple who broke the law to marry when America was still a conglomerate of colonies under British rule. These stories shed light on the legal construction of race and display the brilliance and resistance of early African Americans in the face of increasingly unjust laws, some of which are still in effect in the present day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBenjamin Banneker and Us\u003c\/em\u003e offers a poignant exploration of history, heritage, and the enduring impact of racial dynamics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Macmillan Publishers New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48240782967020,"sku":"9781250871800","price":43.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781250871800-benjamin-banneker-and-us-1.jpg?v=1787926041"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/rachel-jamison-webster.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}