{"product_id":"truevine-two-brothers-a-kidnapping-and-a-mothers-quest-a-true-story-of-the-jim-crow-south","title":"Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe true story of two African-American brothers who were kidnapped and displayed as circus freaks, and whose mother endured a 28-year struggle to get them back.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The year was 1899 and the place a sweltering tobacco farm in the Jim Crow South town of Truevine, Virginia. George and Willie Muse were two little boys born to a sharecropper family. One day a white man offered them a piece of candy, setting off events that would take them around the world and change their lives forever. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Captured into the circus, the Muse brothers performed for royalty at Buckingham Palace and headlined over a dozen sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. They were global superstars in a pre-broadcast era. But the very root of their success was in the color of their skin and in the outrageous caricatures they were forced to assume: supposed cannibals, sheep-headed freaks, even \"Ambassadors from Mars.\" Back home, their mother never accepted that they were \"gone\" and spent 28 years trying to get them back. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Through hundreds of interviews and decades of research, Beth Macy expertly explores a central and difficult question: Where were the brothers better off? On the world stage as stars or in poverty at home? Truevine is a compelling narrative rich in historical detail and rife with implications to race relations today.\r","brand":"Beth Macy","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44446316429548,"sku":"9780316337526","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Hardcover - Large Print","offer_id":44446316462316,"sku":"9781410496188","price":50.65,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1791\/3068\/files\/9780316337526.jpg?v=1719901069","url":"https:\/\/allstora.com\/products\/truevine-two-brothers-a-kidnapping-and-a-mothers-quest-a-true-story-of-the-jim-crow-south","provider":"Allstora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}