Book and Author
Nate Shaw’s father was born under slavery. Nate Shaw was born into bondage that was only a little gentler. At the age of nine, he was picking cotton for thirty-five cents an hour. At the age of forty-seven, he faced down a crowd of white deputies who had come to confiscate a neighbor’s crop. His defiance cost him twelve years in prison. This triumphant autobiography, assembled from the eighty-four year old Shaw’s oral reminiscences, is the plain-spoken story of an ‘”over-average” man who witnessed wrenching changes in the lives of Southern black people – and whose unassuming courage helped bring those changes about. Published in 1974, 600 pages.
Description from book jacket
All God’s Dangers won the National Book Award in 1975.
“The characters in this book are real. Their names, except for historical figures, are fictitious. The names of most places and landmarks have also been changed. These changes were made to protect the privacy of the family of the principal characters. Since the publication of the first edition, articles in various newspapers and magazines have identified the real Nate Shaw: he is Ned Cobb. The family of Ned Cobb, the publisher and Theodore Rosengarten join in proudly acknowledging that Nate Shaw is the fictitious name of Ned Cobb.”
From the front of All God’s Dangers: the Life of Nate Shaw
Discuss
There are no specific questions for this book in the accompanying notebook. General questions for memoirs, book reviews, information about the author and information about the real Nate Shaw are included in notebook.
Enhance
Watch the PBS documentary, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, and/or use PBS’s inter-generational discussion guide to add more background information about similar life experiences.
Learn more about sharecropping from The Encyclopedia of Alabama.
Interact
Share examples of racism and discrimination that you’ve experienced or witnessed.