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Arainach • yesterday at 4:55 PM • 4 replies • view on HN

Is this article missing opening context?

First line:

>Pecan nuts were already a dietary staple for Native Americans in various parts of what is now the United States before Antoine’s innovation established the basis for a commercial pecan industry

Who is "Antoine"? Is it a first name? A last name? It doesn't ever seem to say.

Replies

svat • yesterday at 6:00 PM

At the bottom of the article, it says:

> From When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy by Beronda L. Montgomery. Copyright © 2026. Available from Henry Holt and Co., an imprint of Macmillan

Usually this means that the article is actually a book excerpt (often the first chapter of the book), and in this case we can find online the book's table of contents:

    Preface
    Introduction: Life as Testimony
    1. Pecan Trees and the Roots of Stolen Botanical Knowledge
    2. Sycamore Trees as a Path to Freedom
    3. The Secret Lives of Willow Trees
    4. Poplar Trees Bear Strange Fruit
    5. The Sweeping Promise of Mulberry
    6. A Haven for Community in Historic Oak Trees
    7. Cotton Shrubs and Seeds of Subversion
    8. The Gift of Apple Trees
    Conclusion: Black Botanical Legacy Reclaimed
Usually the first chapter is self-contained, but in this case possibly there was some context about “Antoine’s innovation” in the Introduction that precedes the first chapter.
ceejayoz • yesterday at 5:15 PM

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...

A lot of slaves had no last name, or only their owners’.

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themgt • yesterday at 5:48 PM

This article from 2017 goes over the same story but provides better context: https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/slave-gardener-turned-pec...

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wswope • yesterday at 5:08 PM

The missing context is the title.