Historical Black fiddlers
Rock & Reel: Monticello’s Black Fiddlers
article by David McCormick in Early Music America Magazine
David McCormick; Rock & Reel: Monticello’s Black Fiddlers. Early Music America Magazine. 31 January 2022. https://earlymusicamerica.org/emag-feature/rock-reel-monticellos-black-fiddlers/
Jesse Scott
article on Monticello’s website (article links to other family members)
Snowden Family Band
Wikipedia article on a family of famous Ohio fiddlers
“Critical Fabulation” — info on the tool of storytelling and creator
“Venus in Two Acts” by Saidiya Hartman
Saidiya Hartman; Venus in Two Acts. Small Axe 1 June 2008; 12 (2): 1–14.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/-12-2-1
ABSTRACT: This essay examines the ubiquitous presence of Venus in the archive of Atlantic slavery and wrestles with the impossibility of discovering anything about her that hasn’t already been stated. As an emblematic figure of the enslaved woman in the Atlantic world, Venus makes plain the convergence of terror and pleasure in the libidinal economy of slavery and, as well, the intimacy of history with the scandal and excess of literature. In writing at the limit of the unspeakable and the unknown, the essay mimes the violence of the archive and attempts to redress it by describing as fully as possible the conditions that determine the appearance of Venus and that dictate her silence.
How Saidiya Hartman Retells the History of Black Life By Alexis Okeowo
The scholar’s provocative writing illuminates stories that have long gone untold.
Alexis Okeowo; How Saidiya Hartman Retells the History of Black Life. The New Yorker October 26, 2020 Issue. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/26/how-saidiya-hartman-retells-the-history-of-black-life
On working with archives: An interview with writer Saidiya Hartman by Thora Siemsen
Thora Siemse; On working with archives: An interview with writer Saidiya Hartman. The Creative Independent 18 April 2018. https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/saidiya-hartman-on-working-with-archives/
Image gallery
image 1
- The Scotts play for the Cool Spring Barbeque Club in Charlottesville, Virginia. Robert Jr., Robert Sr., and James Scott, L-R on the left side of the photograph.
- Eston Hemings’ name engraved on the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia.— photo credit: David Perry
- The gravesite of Robert Scott Jr., Robert Scott Sr., and other family members, in Maplewood Cemetery, Charlottesville.— photo credit: David Perry
- Initial Sketches and Moodboard Images from Beaux Xavier
- Ranking of Kings: 10 Ways This Show Is Different from Other Animes (GameRant)

image 3
Video Gallery
video 1
- Joe Thompson, Odell Thompson, and friends: Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms (1983)
- Joe and Odell Thompson at Greenfield Village
- African American Roots and Influences in Country Music
- Eddie South — Black Gypsy
- “Forty Drops,” Andrew and Jim Baxter, 1928, Atlanta, GA
- “Rosalie,” Son Sims Four, 1942, Clarksdale, MS
- “Knox County Stomp,” Tennessee Chocolate Drops, 1930, Knoxville TN
video 2