Kentucky Tomato

Jefferson Davis administration. Fewer than 1,000 men from western North Carolina served in the Union army. While this example does not refute Freehling's overall analysis, it does demonstrate the limits of this study. Freehling has reminded scholars of the major divisions within the slave South during the Civil War era—this is a most valuable service. He has done this in a gracefully written and engaging essay that keeps the reader involved in his presentation from the start to the final page. This significant achievement would have been even further enhanced if Freehling had paid closer attention to events in the Appalachian South. This tendency of southern historians of overlooking the mountain regions has a long history behind it, and this volume is a reminder that this is another regional tradition that remains firmly in place. —Gordon B. McKinney Kentucky Tomato My friend, I hunger for the fruits of your labor. I miss your kitchen conversation, those mugs of thick milk, garden flowers, yellow curtains, terra cotta tiles. I see your hands, your long fingers, bent, cradling a tomato, dripping, the seeds strewn across lean knuckles, brown, lines of skin, white nails, their half-moons glistening. You slice sideways, the knife sharp; red slabs slide to the plate, chilled. We sit together, laughing; our stories, our dreams, unfurl like husks, the kernels cutting through. —Pia Seagrave 91 ...