Journey's End: The Memories and Traditions of Daisy Turner and her Family

Series produced by Vermont Folklife Center Media

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In this Peabody Award winning (1990) documentary series, Daisy Turner of Grafton, Vermont recounts family stories from her life and the life of her father, Alec who was born a slave on a Viginia plantation.

?Journey's End: The Memories and Traditions of Daisy Turner and her Family" follows the story of the Turner family--as told by 100 year old Daisy Turner--from shipwreck off Africa, to slavery on a Virginia plantation and eventual freedom on a Vermont farm. Daisy's stories, and those of her nephews Bruce Turner and Godfrey Hall, cover four generations of African-American experience dating from the mid 19th century (including stories of slavery and the Civil War) to the final decade of the 20th.

Daisy Turner of Grafton, Vermont, was a remarkable individual. When folklorist Jane Beck first met her in 1983, it was clear that her stories must be recorded. Over a period of a year, Jane devoted one day a week to interviewing Daisy. These tens of hours of tape-recorded conversation gave Jane a solid basis for developing the Peabody Award-winning radio series "Journey's End: The Memories and Traditions of Daisy Turner and her Family."

Daisy Turner's storytelling had long been appreciated by members of her family and her Grafton neighbors, but Jane Beck felt strongly that it was important to present her stories to a larger audience. Not only was Daisy a master storyteller, but she was also an African American; her stories vividly portrayed her family's experience under slavery in the American South, reaching back even to her grandfather's youth in Africa. As Daisy often explained, "See we didn't just come from nothing and nowhere, we've got a background, and the background can be traced right down to the roots." Because white society, and by extension, white historians have overlooked, denied, or even suppressed the history and cultural traditions of African Americans, it is essential that the stories of people like Daisy now see the light of day. Daisy Turner died in 1988 at the age of 104.

This new version, a fresh transfer from the 1" preservation master analog tape, was fully digitally remastered in 2006 by Richard Hess (www.richardhess.com/tape). Hide full description

?Journey's End: The Memories and Traditions of Daisy Turner and her Family" follows the story of the Turner family--as told by 100 year old Daisy Turner--from shipwreck off Africa, to slavery on a Virginia plantation and eventual freedom on a Vermont farm. Daisy's stories, and those of her nephews Bruce Turner and Godfrey Hall, cover four generations of African-American experience dating from the mid 19th century (including stories of slavery and the Civil War) to the final decade of the 20th. Daisy Turner of Grafton, Vermont, was a remarkable individual. When folklorist Jane Beck first met her in 1983, it was clear that her stories must be recorded. Over a period of a year, Jane devoted one day a week to interviewing Daisy. These tens of hours of tape-recorded conversation gave... Show full description


20 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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Daisy Turner was proud of her heritage and understood the value of her family tradition. This is the concluding program in the series, Journey's End.

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 02:48
  • Purchases: 2
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At the time of Alec Turner's death in 1923, Journey's End had been his home for 50 years.

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 03:30
  • Purchases: 2
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At 40 Daisy became engaged to Joseph Bonet. When he later broke off the engagement, Daisy sued him--and won!

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 01:45
  • Purchases: 2
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By the turn of the century the Turner household had become a kind of community social center. This program explores the texture of these gatherings.

Bought by Radio Catskill, KGOU, PRX to iTunes, and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 04:56
  • Purchases: 4
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Daisy and her father were so close that she felt they could communicate psychically. This program details such an event.

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 05:16
  • Purchases: 2
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When a Boston market owner attempts to cheat her father, Daisy travels to Boston to confront him.

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 04:14
  • Purchases: 2
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As a girl, Daisy Turner faces discrimination at school and confronts it directly--with poetry.

Bought by KZYX, PRX to iTunes, and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 04:39
  • Purchases: 3
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Daisy suffered from rickets as a child and during her younger years was unable to walk. At a young age she heard prayers, recitations, hymns, and s...

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 03:11
  • Purchases: 2
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In this episode Alec Turner accepts a challenge and performs a dramatic feat of strength.

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 03:20
  • Purchases: 2
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Alec Turner and his wife, Sally settle in Vermont on the farm he called Journey's End.

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 03:20
  • Purchases: 2
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Alec and Sally Turner lived for a time in Williamsburg, Maine, as members of a colony of freed slaves who worked in the Merrill slate quarry there.

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 04:45
  • Purchases: 2
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After the Civil War ended, Alec worked helping freed slaves find jobs off the plantations. During this time he met his future wife, Sally Early, th...

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 03:51
  • Purchases: 2
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Daisy recites a Civil War-era poem--a doctor's letter to the parents of a dead soldier who was his comrade in arms.

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 05:01
  • Purchases: 2
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Alec Turner guides the First New Jersey Cavalry on a raid of the plantation that had been his home.

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 03:14
  • Purchases: 2

  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 04:57
  • Purchases: 2
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John Gouldin's plantation was on the Rappahannock River in Port Royal, Virginia. He owned 2,000 acres and 77 slaves. If the slaves didn't work fast...

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 03:15
  • Purchases: 2
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Alec Turner was born on the Gouldin plantation in 1845 and remembered his childhood there in stories he told his children and grandchildren. Many o...

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 02:24
  • Purchases: 2
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In this episode Alec Turner's mother, Rose secretly makes a pair of red moccasins for Alec with disastrous consequences.

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 04:10
  • Purchases: 2
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The story of Daisy's grandfather Alexander, whose parents were a shipwrecked English merchant's daughter and an African chieftain's son.

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 05:23
  • Purchases: 2
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Introducing Daisy Turner who lived to be 104 and was an extraordinary storyteller, sharing experiences from her lifetime and from her parents and g...

Bought by PRX to iTunes and KZYX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2007
  • Length: 03:20
  • Purchases: 2