Our Fathers' Fields: A Southern Story

Rating:
Summary: A Southern Classic - Most Accurate & Informative
Review: Apparently the reader from Pickens,South Carolina who gave a review entitled "Blind, reactionary, racist drivel," which was posted 7 February, 1999, has sadly confused the names of authors James Kibler & James Kilgo. While on holiday in Charleston, South Carolina last year, I had the pleasure of attending a meeting of the South Carolina Poetry Society, in which Kibler read from the chapter entitled "Captain Dick," from "Our Fathers' Fields." One thing I could not help but notice was how after the meeting, those in attendance (particularly all five of the blacks in the audience)expressed relief to Kibler of the fact that his book is not caught up with racial pandering, which is a rather strange fascination of some other authors who have written books with regards to their questionable interpretation of history in South Carolina. Indeed, it is most refreshing to read a book like this which does not have such an agenda, with contrast to a number of books lately written by authors defaming the character South (particularly South Carolina). Thank goodness that Jim Kibler at least had the fortitude of using the most accurate documentation in writing this Southern classic. No wonder Shelby Foote is looking forward to presenting Kibler with the award of "Best Southern Non-fiction Book of the Year," this April.

Rating:
Summary: MY FAMILY'S STORY
Review: Dr.Kibler told me that the most common remark he heard when he was signing books for his first promotion of Our Father's Fields was "this is my family's story." I believe anyone from the South who has knowledge of their ancestral past can say the same thing after reading this book.It does have a common theme of settling,nurturing,and loving a land and the people who helped make that land what it was and to some extent,still is today.Painstaking research was done over many many hours as detailed in this book.Having visited this home twice I can tell you that you feel the history and people here. The only warning I would give you is do not buy this book if you are looking for the usual pablum issued forth by the New York Times best sellers about the South.However,if you want a healthy dose of truth about her and her people then you can't do better then Our Father's Fields.

Rating:
Summary: A Love for the Land
Review: James Kibler does a masterful job of relating the story of a South Carolina family and their home on the Tyger River. Not only does Kibler tell a compelling story, he conveys the uniquely Southern question of the property ownership. �Do you own land or does the land own you?� In the South, one does not just own property. He does not simply possess a piece of real estate. The land has prior claim and possesses its owner. In turn, the owner of record becomes its custodian and responsible for all that came before him.
In Massachusetts, when Bob Villa fixes up an old house, he is simply fixing up on old house. In Atlanta, (unlike the real South) they fix up an old house and call it �property rehabilitation,� just another investment. But outside the metro-monstrosity, to rescue an ancestral home is to rescue history itself. To work in its gardens and find an occasional arrowhead or musket ball is to experience a piece of life. To salvage the work of a long ago carpenter (even though you cannot immortalize him) is to save his efforts and art for the future to enjoy. Saving someone�s refuge from history is to become a part of history yourself, yet another tale that must be rescued from the condos and strip malls.
Unlike the rest of America�s empire, the South remains conscious of its history. We cannot ignore what we tread on every day. We live our lives up to our necks in the results of history. In turn, there is no greater honor than to be a part of our history and its land. If Yankee legions could not destroy the land and its story, then modern corporations and termites haven�t got a prayer. Here we do not measure history with years; we measure history with lots, acres, family and true Christian friends.

Rating:
Summary: A Love for the Land
Review: James Kibler does a masterful job of relating the story of a South Carolina family and their home on the Tyger River. Not only does Kibler tell a compelling story, he conveys the uniquely Southern question of the property ownership. 'Do you own land or does the land own you?' In the South, one does not just own property. He does not simply possess a piece of real estate. The land has prior claim and possesses its owner. In turn, the owner of record becomes its custodian and responsible for all that came before him.
In Massachusetts, when Bob Villa fixes up an old house, he is simply fixing up on old house. In Atlanta, (unlike the real South) they fix up an old house and call it 'property rehabilitation,' just another investment. But outside the metro-monstrosity, to rescue an ancestral home is to rescue history itself. To work in its gardens and find an occasional arrowhead or musket ball is to experience a piece of life. To salvage the work of a long ago carpenter (even though you cannot immortalize him) is to save his efforts and art for the future to enjoy. Saving someone's refuge from history is to become a part of history yourself, yet another tale that must be rescued from the condos and strip malls.
Unlike the rest of America's empire, the South remains conscious of its history. We cannot ignore what we tread on every day. We live our lives up to our necks in the results of history. In turn, there is no greater honor than to be a part of our history and its land. If Yankee legions could not destroy the land and its story, then modern corporations and termites haven't got a prayer. Here we do not measure history with years; we measure history with lots, acres, family and true Christian friends.

Rating:
Summary: Masterful recreation of the family of a restored plantation
Review: Kibler brings back a slice of the Old South with detailed research and rich, descriptive narrative. Some may accuse him of romanticizing but recent scholarship places him much closer to reality. The Hardy's (the original family of the home Kibler himself restored) while atypical of the prosperity of the larger South are representative of their class. A good read & highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: An insightful and fascinating history
Review: The author of this book, Dr James Kibler, bought a derelict plantation house in the South Carolina upcountry in 1989 and proceeded to restore it. For those of us who wish we had the time, money and energy to do the same, this book is a wonderful Walter-Mittyesque escape. However, it is also something a great deal more significant, recently winning a major book award, as the non-fiction winner alongside the best-selling "Cold Mountain", the winner in the fiction category. Narrowly considered, "Our Fathers' Fields" is the history of only one house and only one family and their neighbors in one small area. However, this material is presented so that it becomes a "case history" for a more universal experience, namely the overall history of the agrarian South. The Hardy family followed the same migration routes and came from the same cultural context as those who populated the rest of the South. Southern genealogists will see many familiar surnames in this work, further increasing the sense of identification. (It is no accident that "The Bonnie Blue Flag", anthem of the Confederacy, began, "we are a band of brothers", although a band of cousins might have been more accurate). While the Hardys were quite rich by the 1830's, the beginnings of their plantation were humble -- 200 acres and a cabin, and their early pioneer story mirrored that of most families that left Virginia and headed south or west. The book looks at plantation life in the broader context of all strata and presents the history the whole Hardy family, black and white, over these generations in a sympathetic but not over-romanticised light. It is one of the very few local history works that has managed successfully to present as a cogent whole the complete history of a house: its architecture, the genealogy of its family, the cultural and historical framework in which both developed over two centuries, and such engaging details as furnishings, garden design and natural history, which other historians might have discarded as trivial but which tell us a great deal about these people and how they lived and what they thought. Dr Kibler's meticulous research has clearly become a labour of love. This comes through clearly in the book and the work is the better for it because of the insights that he has developed. The Hardy family comes alive in this book, not as stiff, enigmatic figures in a tintype but as flesh and blood folk with hopes, dreams, and opinions, who experience tragedy and loss with grace and strength. In some ways it is almost as if Kibler has acquired the viewpoint of an early planter, and some of the book reads almost like a first-hand account as a result. Dr Kibler's exhaustive cataloguing of the biodiverse flora & fauna of the area perhaps was the most telling -- it was exactly as a plantation owner would have done in the 18th and early 19th century -- reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, or of William Byrd's diaries -- and of the "game books" at the great English country houses. The head of England's Historic Houses Association once remarked, "We don't own our houses. They own us." This quintessentially English sense of stewardship, of holding heritage in trust for future generations, survives outside of England uniquely in the American South. Through this book, James Kibler has become perhaps its foremost exponent. This book is an un-put-down-able read that has something for everyone -- history buffs, students of Southern culture, genealogists, people who like old houses, antiques or garden design. There's even a ghost story!

Rating:
Summary: An Ancestors' Repsonse
Review: This work by Dr. Kibler reveals the history of this family, their life style, the impact that the members of the family had on southern society during that time period, and the impact of that time period on the family.

As an ancestor of the Hardy family he so elequently describes, I thank Dr. Kibler for the efforts he relentlessly pursued in order to reveal the life of this southern family.

Additionally, I thank the reviewers - all of you, pro and con - that have taken the time to extend their personal thoughts and feelings about Dr. Kibler's work.

I assure each and everyone one of you that the ancestors of this proud Southern family are alive and well, and that the history of the Hardy family is a Southern history that ALL of us share that reside here in the deep south. It will always remain a vital part of this family, and of this culture, through all time.

My children are well aware of their heritage, and are filled with pride to be personally related to the family that lived and survived in this historical, colorful past. My brother and sister, both residents of South Carolina, are just as proud.

God bless all of you.

Allen Key Hardy