Outliving the White Lie: A Southerner's Historical, Genealogical, and Personal Journey

Outliving the White Lie: A Southerner's Historical, Genealogical, and Personal Journey explores the conflicting narratives of American and Southern identity by combining public, family, and deeply personal history. It challenges the untruths about the history and legacy of race, such as the misrepresentations of Black Confederates and the myth of a postracial America, and suggests that these perspectives were reconciled in antebellum America by white citizens learning to live with slavery by learning to live a lie.

Format: Hardback
Length: 277 pages
Publication date: 15 February 2024
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi

Outliving the White Lie: A Southerners Historical, Genealogical, and Personal Journey is a captivating book that blends public, family, and deeply personal history to explore conflicting narratives of American and Southern identity. Author James Wiggins, who was raised in rural Mississippi, brings a unique perspective to the table by combining thorough historical research with his own lived experiences.

The book delves into the many untruths regarding the history and legacy of race that have been perpetuated among white Americans, from misrepresentations of Black Confederates to the myth of a postracial America. While the United States was ostensibly established to achieve freedom and shrug off an oppressive English monarchy, the mythology of its founding belies a glaring paradox: that this is a country whose foundation depends entirely on coercion and enslavement.

How, then, could generations of decent people, who valued individual liberty and personal autonomy, coexist within and alongside such a paradox? Historians suggest an answer: that these seemingly dissonant points of view were reconciled in antebellum America by white citizens learning to live with slavery by learning to live a lie. The operative lie throughout American history and the lie underpinning the institution of slavery, they argue, has always been the fallacy of race—deliberately propagated tenets asserting skin color as the preeminent marker of identity and value.

In his book, Wiggins takes accepted delusions to task, challenging readers to reconsider their assumptions and understand the complexities of Southern living. Through his personal journey and deep research, he offers a poignant reconciliation of southern history, genealogy, and identity. Outliving the White Lie is a must-read for anyone interested in exploring the intersection of race, history, and personal experience in America.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781496848086