Strange Fruit

From the author: “I have written this book about Somerset County and the surrounding region with a specific purpose in mind – to trace the course of racism and society in a tidewater county in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay country from 1850 to the present. Tidewater Somerset provides us with a palette for understanding racism and the evolution of racial ideas often overlooked by scholars. I have sought to ascertain what specific influences and trends, as well as political and cultural developments have played out at the micro-level in Maryland over time that might test or call into question assumptions about the nature of race relations that we have on the national level. My remarks, both scholarly and personal, will help us find our way in the story of race in the Chesapeake Bay country. Race provides the scaffolding, the frame that forms the underside of our national story. And in this story we will see Black actors in the human drama of oppression and freedom living lives that are both critical and self-aware.” This is a book about Somerset County and the surrounding region, which traces the course of racism and society in a tidewater county in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay country from 1850 to the present. Tidewater Somerset provides us with a palette for understanding racism and the evolution of racial ideas often overlooked by scholars. The book examines specific influences and trends, as well as political and cultural developments, which have played out at the micro-level in Maryland over time, and which might test or call into question assumptions about the nature of race relations at the national level.