Andrew Waters – författare

During the Great Depression, the Federal Writers’ Project engaged jobless writers and researchers to interview former slaves about their experiences in bondage. Most of the interviewees were by then in their eighties and nineties, and their memories were soon to be lost to history. The effort was a huge success, eventually encompassing more than two thousand interviews and ten thousand pages of material across seventeen states. This collection presents the personal narratives of twenty-eight former Georgia slaves. As editor Andrew Waters notes, the “two ends of the human perspective—terror and joy” are often evident within the same interviews, as the ex-slaves tell of the abuses they endured while they simultaneously yearn for younger, simpler days. The result is a complex mix of emotions spoken out of a dark past that must not be forgotten.Andrew Waters is a writer and former editor. A native North Carolinian, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Honors in Creative Writing and received a graduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the executive director of the Spartanburg Area Conservancy in Spartanburg, SC.

In his introduction to Prayin’ to Be Set Free, Andrew Waters likens the personal accounts of former Mississippi slaves to the music of that state’s legendary blues artists. The pain, the modest eloquence, and even the underlying vitality are much the same. What is now Mississippi wasn’t acquired by the United States until 1798, at which time it had fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, excluding Native Americans. By the Civil War, it had over 430,000 slaves and 350,000 whites. More than half the whites were members of slave-owning families. The majority of slaves worked in the cotton fields. Mississippi was known as a slave-buying frontier state, in contrast to the eastern states, which sold slaves westward. Indeed, many of the former slaves in this book speak of coming to Mississippi as children. At the height of the Depression, the out-of-work wordsmiths who comprised the Federal Writers’ Project began interviewing elderly African-Americans about their experiences under slavery. The former slaves were more than 70 years removed from bondage, but the memories of many of them were strikingly clear. The accounts from former Mississippi slaves are considered among the strongest in the entire collection. The 28 narratives presented here are the best of those.Andrew Waters is a writer and former editor. A native North Carolinian, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Honors in Creative Writing and received a graduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the executive director of the Spartanburg Area Conservancy in Spartanburg, SC.

When you think of early Texas history, you think of freedom fighters at the Alamo and rugged cowboys riding the plains. You usually don’t think too much about slavery in the Lone Star State. Although slavery existed in Texas only from the second decade of the 19th century to the close of the Civil War, the majority of early settlers came to Texas from other Southern states. When they moved westward, they brought their slaves with them. When the Federal Writers’ Project sent interviewers across Texas to find former slaves and document what their lives were like during slavery, they filed over 590 slave narratives, the largest collection of any state. The 28 selections in I Was Born in Slavery show that Texas slaves had their own distinctive voices, often colored by their Western culture. Lu Lee, who lived in what was then Cook County, describes seeing Indians pass by the house every day, observing droves of wild horses, and watching wolves grab “a big, good-sized calf in small time.” James Cape, interviewed in Fort Worth, speaks affectionately about his favorite horse and tells about working as a cowhand for a cattle rustler before escaping to Missouri to work on Jesse James’s farm. Sam Jones Washington, a slave on a ranch along the Colorado River, describes how he once diverted a cattle stampede. He ends his description by saying that “if them cattle stamp you to death, Gabriel sho’ blow the horn for you then!” Along with descriptions of the frontier, the words of these slaves provide poignant insights into what it was like to live as a slave in this area. Through their voices, we are given a moving glimpse into an important part of American history.Andrew Waters is a writer and former editor. A native North Carolinian, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Honors in Creative Writing and received a graduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the executive director of the Spartanburg Area Conservancy in Spartanburg, SC.

This book examines modern American farmland preservation, arguing that its policies must address the social, identity, and psychological issues facing American farmers.As American farmland is disappearing rapidly, this crisis not only jeopardizes American agriculture but also threatens rural communities. While the American farmland preservation movement has focused on conservation easements, permanent land restrictions that work within the American legal system’s preference for inalienable property rights, the author argues for a new era of farmland preservation based on stakeholder-led solutions. The book showcases how rapid development is escalating farmland loss in urbanizing parts of the country, meaning the problem facing much of rural America is the loss of farmers and farm communities, not farmland. Drawing on the author’s career as a farmland preservation specialist, the book evaluates America’s current farmland preservation policies framed through the “politics of place,” a term describing the role of place in local politics and civic engagement. Utilizing interviews with farmland preservationists, the book highlights a broader, more holistic approach to farmland preservation than mere land protection. By featuring these prominent examples from around the country, the book puts forward a new vision for farmland preservation that more insightfully addresses the social and economic issues facing America’s farming communities and fosters a more engaged rural citizenship.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food and agriculture, rural sociology, and environmental management, as well as professionals working in farmland management, conservation, and preservation.

This book examines modern American farmland preservation, arguing that its policies must address the social, identity, and psychological issues facing American farmers.As American farmland is disappearing rapidly, this crisis not only jeopardizes American agriculture but also threatens rural communities. While the American farmland preservation movement has focused on conservation easements, permanent land restrictions that work within the American legal system’s preference for inalienable property rights, the author argues for a new era of farmland preservation based on stakeholder-led solutions. The book showcases how rapid development is escalating farmland loss in urbanizing parts of the country, meaning the problem facing much of rural America is the loss of farmers and farm communities, not farmland. Drawing on the author’s career as a farmland preservation specialist, the book evaluates America’s current farmland preservation policies framed through the “politics of place,” a term describing the role of place in local politics and civic engagement. Utilizing interviews with farmland preservationists, the book highlights a broader, more holistic approach to farmland preservation than mere land protection. By featuring these prominent examples from around the country, the book puts forward a new vision for farmland preservation that more insightfully addresses the social and economic issues facing America’s farming communities and fosters a more engaged rural citizenship.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food and agriculture, rural sociology, and environmental management, as well as professionals working in farmland management, conservation, and preservation.

FINALIST FOR THE 2025 AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST PRIZE FOR HISTORYOver the past several decades, the history of the American Revolution in the South has undergone a transformation to better incorporate regional events into the greater narrative of the war. Among these events was the vicious “backcountry” war from the Georgia border, across the South Carolina wilderness, to the North Carolina Piedmont between rebel Americans and loyalist and British forces. Centered in South Carolina, this running battle saw some of the most intense and continuous fighting of the war, and from its skirmishes, feints, and sieges, three key leaders emerged: American partisans Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion and Thomas “Gamecock” Sumter, and British Legion commander Banastre “Bloody Ban” Tarleton.For the first time, Backcountry War: The Rise of Francis Marion, Banastre Tarleton, and Thomas Sumter by Andrew Waters frames the history of these three men into in a single narrative, focusing on the events of 1780 in South Carolina that witnessed their collective ascendance from common soldiers to American legends. It was a time when British victories at Charleston and Camden left the Continental Army in tatters and the entire American South vulnerable to British conquest. Yet in those dark hours, Sumter, Marion, and others like them rose in the swamps and hills of the South Carolina wilderness. Fighting a wildly successful partisan war against better trained and better equipped British forces, including Tarleton’s British Legion, with victories at lesser-known places like Hanging Rock and Nelson’s Ferry, they gained precious months for the reorganizing Continental Army. Their collective efforts led to the stunning American victory at Cowpens and a stalemate at Guilford’s Courthouse the following year that finally convinced British general Charles Cornwallis to abandon the Carolinas for Virginia. With background biographies of its three main protagonists, a thorough sketch of Great Britain’s Southern Strategy, and a sociocultural examination of the South Carolina frontier in the years leading up to the American Revolution, Backcountry War offers a fresh perspective on an extraordinary chapter of American history and a compelling account of the deadly contest between three of the war’s most charismatic leaders.

FINALIST FOR THE 2025 AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST PRIZE FOR HISTORYOver the past several decades, the history of the American Revolution in the South has undergone a transformation to better incorporate regional events into the greater narrative of the war. Among these events was the vicious “backcountry” war from the Georgia border, across the South Carolina wilderness, to the North Carolina Piedmont between rebel Americans and loyalist and British forces. Centered in South Carolina, this running battle saw some of the most intense and continuous fighting of the war, and from its skirmishes, feints, and sieges, three key leaders emerged: American partisans Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion and Thomas “Gamecock” Sumter, and British Legion commander Banastre “Bloody Ban” Tarleton.For the first time, Backcountry War: The Rise of Francis Marion, Banastre Tarleton, and Thomas Sumter by Andrew Waters frames the history of these three men into in a single narrative, focusing on the events of 1780 in South Carolina that witnessed their collective ascendance from common soldiers to American legends. It was a time when British victories at Charleston and Camden left the Continental Army in tatters and the entire American South vulnerable to British conquest. Yet in those dark hours, Sumter, Marion, and others like them rose in the swamps and hills of the South Carolina wilderness. Fighting a wildly successful partisan war against better trained and better equipped British forces, including Tarleton’s British Legion, with victories at lesser-known places like Hanging Rock and Nelson’s Ferry, they gained precious months for the reorganizing Continental Army. Their collective efforts led to the stunning American victory at Cowpens and a stalemate at Guilford’s Courthouse the following year that finally convinced British general Charles Cornwallis to abandon the Carolinas for Virginia. With background biographies of its three main protagonists, a thorough sketch of Great Britain’s Southern Strategy, and a sociocultural examination of the South Carolina frontier in the years leading up to the American Revolution, Backcountry War offers a fresh perspective on an extraordinary chapter of American history and a compelling account of the deadly contest between three of the war’s most charismatic leaders.