Readers reluctant to read THE HAIRSTONS because of its similarity to Edward Ball's SLAVES IN THE FAMILY should not be dissuaded. In some ways, this is a better book.

The author Henry Wiencek provides a sometimes confusing family tree of both white and black Hairstons. Once you get used to it, you will find yourself paging back and forth trying to find the Hairston Wiencek is talking about. What I found most fascinating was how the Hairstons kept the plantations in the family. For instance, "Saura Town Peter" Hairston arranged for his daughter Ruth to marry his nephew Robert after her first husband, Peter Wilson, died young. This usually worked, but in this instance, Robert, who wanted to free his slaves against Peter's daughter's wishes, left his family. He established another Hairston dynasty in Mississippi.

When Wiencek tells us about Robert and his heirs, the book becomes fascinating. Robert fell in love with one of his slaves, having a daughter with her. When he died, he left his plantations to the daughter, Chrillis. The other Hairstons, some of whom had followed Robert to Mississippi, fought the will, and when that didn't work they transferred Chrillis to another plantation, telling the judge she had died. Wiencek tracks down Chrillis, and she's not the only former slave he's able to ferret out. Once again "Saura Town Peter" enters the picture. Wiencek contends that "Saura Town Peter" had another family with one of his slaves, Sally Blag. At a reunion of the black Hairstons, Wiencek meets Joseph Henry Hairston. Joseph knows he had a white ancestor but is unable to trace any further back than a slave named Elias. Wiencek is able to find strong circumstantial evidence that "Saura Town Peter" may have been the Joseph's white ancestor.

Joseph Henry Hairston is a remarkable man. He works his way up from sharecropper to army officer to lawyer for the federal government. Joseph and Judge Peter Wilson Hairston, the present owner of Cooleemee Plantation on the Yadkin River in North Carolina, are the central protagonists in the book. Judge Peter opens his archives to Wiencek and helps him all he can to write this book, although he's worried what Wiencek may say. The white Hairstons insist that their family was kind to their slaves. Judge Peter's worst fears come true when Wiencek shows the Judge's grandfather selling Robert Hairston's slaves down the river.

There is reconciliation at the end, however, as Judge Peter opens Cooleemee to the black Hairstons and the black Hairstons embrace their heritage no matter how cruel some of the Hairston ancestors and overseers were to their people.

Dave Schwinghammer's published novel, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available at Amazon.com.