The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White

The Hairstons chronicles the largest slaveholding family in the Old South and how their descendants—both white and Black—have confronted their shared legacy. A National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, this history spans two centuries of the Hairston family, once the wealthiest family in the Old South and America's largest slaveholder. Journalist Henry Wiencek spent seven years researching the extensive Hairston family tree, documenting the experiences of both plantation owners and enslaved people. Traveling through Virginia, North Carolina, and Mississippi, the book reconstructs how descendants of the enslaved fought to establish themselves in mainstream America, while also tracing the white descendants through the decline of the Old South. The work examines slavery's long-term consequences and how its effects persisted across generations of slaveholding families. With several thousand Black and white members today, the Hairstons share a complex history—divided during slavery but now united as one family.