novels about slavery

[Divia]

Some people have been throwing some really cool books around that deal with American slavery and I thought I'd make a list. If you can think of any please add them :)


Isle of Canes by Elizabeth Shown Mills
Letters from an Age of Reason: A Novel by Nora Hague
Cane River by Lalita Tademy
Red River by Lalita Tademy
A Million Nightingales by Susan Straight
Property by Valerie Martin
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Sweetsmoke by David Fuller
Roots by Alex Haley
Queen by Alex Haley
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
Sally Hemmings: A Novel by Barbara Chase-Riboud (1979)
Someone Knows My Name: A Novel by Lawrence Hill
Song Yet Sung by James McBride

[Ariadne]

Another one I liked a lot is Gretchen Craig's Always and Forever. Review online here (http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org/ec-aug-2006.htm#always). Dreadful title, good book :D

For some reason I've always liked reading plantation novels.

[Amanda]

Beloved by Toni Morrison. I haven't read any other of her works but I would think she would deal with it in other works to.

[MLE]

I have read McBride's Miracle at St Anna's (hope that's the right name) and also his autobiography, the Color of Water. I love his writing style!

[MLE]

Beloved by Toni Morrison. I haven't read any other of her works but I would think she would deal with it in other works to.
She does deal with it as backstory in Song of Solomon. Fascinating book.

[Alaric]

"Flash for Freedom!," by George MacDonald Fraser. It's set in the slave trade in Mississippi and the underground railway.

[Vanessa]

A friend has lent me Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons by Anne Rinaldi. Here's the blurb:

This is a moving historical novel based on the story of Phillis Wheatley - the first African American female poet. It is an intriguing and moving story of a young girl kidnapped from her home in Senegal and sold, in 1761, as a slave to the wealthy Wheatley family of Boston. Phillis Wheatley - as she comes to be known - has a keen intelligence and a knack for learning. When the family discover her gift for writing poetry, they begin to mould her future by having her 'perform' for influential guests. Eventually, she is sent to England, where her work is finally published - the first book of poetry by an African American woman. However, all the trappings of success do nothing to change the fact that she is still a slave.

Anybody read it?

[Divia]

Ya know Anne Rinaldi is a well known YA historical fiction author and yet I havent read anything by her!

[KeyWestLiterarySeminar]

March by Geraldine Brooks - it won the Pulitzer Prize; tells the story of a Concord abolitionist who falls in love with a slave and later serves in the Civil War and tries to establish a farm where recently-freed slaves go to school and work for wages.

Also- Madison Smartt Bell's trilogy on the 1804 Haitian Revolution, the story of which is integral to the end of slavery in America.

[annis]

Frank Yerby wrote several "plantation" novels, starting with "The Foxes of Harrow".

[Ash]

I can't think of the title or author (I know, booksellers hide when they see me coming!) but the premise of the book is true: a novel by a slave was found, and after much research and analysis was found to be true. The author of the book describes the discover and analysis (this was the best part of the book), then includes the actual novel. Unfortunately as much as I wanted to like it, I couldn't get into it.

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Alan Gurganus

The March by EL Doctorow

[boswellbaxter]

I can't think of the title or author (I know, booksellers hide when they see me coming!) but the premise of the book is true: a novel by a slave was found, and after much research and analysis was found to be true. The author of the book describes the discover and analysis (this was the best part of the book), then includes the actual novel. Unfortunately as much as I wanted to like it, I couldn't get into it.



The Bondswoman's Narrative (http://www.amazon.com/Bondwomans-Narrative-Hannah-Crafts/dp/0446530085)?

[AuntiePam]

The Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth

I'll second the recommendations for Someone Knows My Name, The March (Sherman) and March (the Civil War experience of the father in Little Women), Property and Nat Turner.

[Ash]

The Bondswoman's Narrative (http://www.amazon.com/Bondwomans-Narrative-Hannah-Crafts/dp/0446530085)?


I missed this somehow: yes, thats the one.

[Divia]

I tried to read march once and just couldnt get into it. Maybe one day I'll try again...maybe.

[Ash]

Octavia Butler's Kindred is history, slavery with time travel. Very very powerful book.

[Margaret]

I reviewed Sally Hemings last month at HistoricalNovels.info (http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Sally-Hemings.html). I thought it was a wonderful novel, beautiful and complex, about Thomas Jefferson's slave Sally Hemings. Their relationship comes across not just as an artifact of slavery, but as a relationship that embodies certain universal truths about the silences and constraints that tend to emerge in many relationships.

Barbara Chase-Riboud shared some fascinating information in the interview I've just posted on my blog (http://www.historicalnovels.info/historical-novels-blog.html). Did you know the caretakers of Monticello ripped out a small spiral staircase in Jefferson's bedroom there after Chase-Riboud's novel was first published?

[princess]

Uncle Tom's Cabin?

[Ash]

Ok someone help me - its a sci fi time travel book, written by a recently deceased sci fi writer; The main character goes back in time to when her ancestor was a child slave and she recues him from drowning. I can't remember the title or author but I loved the book.

[annis]

I'm thinking maybe Octavia Butler's "Kindred"? Though it's so long since I read it that I may have lost the plot!

[Ash]

Duh - yes. I didn't remember that this is an old thread, and if you look upthread just a bit you'll see my post from a year or so ago, same book! Yikes

[annis]

Hey, Ash, I'd be the last to knock you --these days I have many 'lost plot" moments - I'm pleased I got this right, even if the answer was already there if I'd gone back a bit!

[cw gortner]

I've been reading marvelous reviews for Andrea Levy's The Long Song, set in a plantation in Jamaica shortly before and after the Baptist revolt of 1831-32. It's on my TBR list.

The Known World is also a gorgeous novel about the effects of the aftermath of slavery.

[annis]

Andrea Levy's book sounds very interesting, CW. I've just been at her website and there's a bit about the novel and a picture of the cover, which is gorgeous.
http://www.andrealevy.co.uk/

[Chris Little]

"Soul Catcher" by Michael White

http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Catcher-Michael-C-White/dp/0061340731/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266599062&sr=1-1

[Margaret]

Andrea Levy's book sounds very interesting, CW. I've just been at her website and there's a bit about the novel and a picture of the cover, which is gorgeous.
http://www.andrealevy.co.uk/

Also, an excerpt from the opening, which is irresistible. This book is going onto my TBR - though where I will work it in is not yet clear ...

[annis]

Another novel about slavery in Jamaica is Marion Jones' "Book of the Night Women" (http://www.amazon.com/Book-Night-Women-Marlon-James/dp/B002BWQ4R8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266627446&sr=8-1)

I seem to remember that a slave revolt in Jamaica is part of Diana Norman's sprawling 18th century novel "Shores of Darkness", which follows a conspiracy about a potential successor to Queen Anne of England half-way around the world, taking in Flanders, the court of the Sun King in France, and Jamaica.

[Ariadne]

I loved Shores of Darkness, it's my favorite of Norman's that I've read so far, although by now I have only the vaguest recollection of the plotline... other than that it had Anne Bonny in it, as well as Queen Anne, and it was incredibly witty and clever.

[annis]

I went to check my copy of "Shores of Darkness" before to refresh my memory of it and do you think i can find it? I know it's here somewhere--

[cw gortner]

Andrea Levy's book sounds very interesting, CW. I've just been at her website and there's a bit about the novel and a picture of the cover, which is gorgeous.
http://www.andrealevy.co.uk/

Oh, great! I hadn't visited her site. Thanks for posting.

[mlouisalocke]

My favorite fiction that deals with slavery are Barbara Hambly's (http://www.amazon.com/Barbara-Hambly/e/B000AQ3ZOM/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1) Benjamin January series. While Benjamin is a free black, the stories do deal with slavery, and the free black population of New Orleans, and the cultural differences towards slavery and people of color between the French and Spanish and the American's who take over after War of 1812. Her first book is A Free Man of Color, and in her fourth, Sold Down the River, Benjamin actually spends time as a slave on a plantation. Very powerful stuff.

Two books that are not fiction, but autobiographies, but must reads for anyone interested in this subject are Frederick Douglass, A Narrative in the Life of a Slave (http://www.amazon.com/Narrative-Life-Frederick-Douglass-American/dp/0312257376/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290294191&sr=1-1)

or Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (http://www.amazon.com/Incidents-Life-Slave-Girl-Touchstone/dp/158049336X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290294510&sr=1-1)

Both books prove the old adage that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

[wendy]

Beloved by Toni Morrison. I haven't read any other of her works but I would think she would deal with it in other works to.

Slavery (and the aftermath effects) provide the backdrop for most of Morrison's work.

I would also recommend Willa Cather's Sapphira and the Slave Girl.

[bevgray]

Band of Angels by Robert Penn Warren. It's an older book from the mid-20th century. It is the story of a woman raised as the daughter of a white plantation owner in Ante-Bellum Kentucky. When her father dies, she learns that her mother was his slave. She's taken down river and sold in New Orleans. It was a bit racy for it's time due to the subject matter but it gives an interesting perspective. Some of you may be familiar with the film made from the book that starred Clark Gable, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Sidney Poitiers.

[Mythica]

All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann.

A free woman of color in the 1830s, Margaret Morgan lived a life full of promise. One frigid night in Pennsylvania, that changed forever. They tore her family apart. They put her in chains. They never expected her to fight back.In 1837, Margaret Morgan was kidnapped from her home in Pennsylvania and sold into slavery. The state of Pennsylvania charged her kidnapper with the crime, but the conviction was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. It was the first time a major branch of the federal government had made a pro-slavery stand, and the ruling in Prigg v. Pennsylvania sewed the bitter seeds of the states' rights battle that eventually would lead to the Civil War.Yet, the heart of this story is not a historic Supreme Court ruling. It is the remarkable, unforgettable Margaret Morgan. Her life would never be the same. Her family had been torn apart. Uncaring forces abused her body and her heart. But she refused to give up, refused to stop fighting, refused to allow her soul to be enslaved.

It's based on a true story and it's pretty good but I felt the author took some liberties with her "facts" in the Author's Notes. She basically claims she found Margaret's family on the 1830 US Census which proves that they were free since they were listed as such. But there is no conclusive proof that it is indeed Margaret's family since the 1830 census only recorded the head of the household's name, which would have been Margaret's husband (assuming they were indeed free). But we don't actually know what Margaret's husband name was so there is no way to know for sure that this was her family.

This is the second time I've taken issue with an author's notes making factual statements about inconclusive evidence. Historical fiction readers rely on the author's notes to separate fact from fiction but with authors now taking liberties with what is actually factual, it could lead to a lot of misinformed readers.

Sorry, that's a little off topic but had to be said. As for the novel itself, it was good but not great. It uses the increasing trend of swapping between first and third person and it was also written in present tense, neither of which I'm a fan of. But Margaret's story was pretty moving, even if it's not entirely her own story, elements of it were probably the experiences of many other slaves.

[Misfit]

Sorry, that's a little off topic but had to be said. As for the novel itself, it was good but not great. It uses the increasing trend of swapping between first and third person and it was also written in present tense, neither of which I'm a fan of. But Margaret's story was pretty moving, even if it's not entirely her own story, elements of it were probably the experiences of many other slaves.

That's pretty much how I felt about it, good but not earth shattering. It was one of the better kindle freebies I've picked up.

[Misfit]

All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann.

A free woman of color in the 1830s, Margaret Morgan lived a life full of promise. One frigid night in Pennsylvania, that changed forever. They tore her family apart. They put her in chains. They never expected her to fight back.In 1837, Margaret Morgan was kidnapped from her home in Pennsylvania and sold into slavery. The state of Pennsylvania charged her kidnapper with the crime, but the conviction was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. It was the first time a major branch of the federal government had made a pro-slavery stand, and the ruling in Prigg v. Pennsylvania sewed the bitter seeds of the states' rights battle that eventually would lead to the Civil War.Yet, the heart of this story is not a historic Supreme Court ruling. It is the remarkable, unforgettable Margaret Morgan. Her life would never be the same. Her family had been torn apart. Uncaring forces abused her body and her heart. But she refused to give up, refused to stop fighting, refused to allow her soul to be enslaved.

It's based on a true story and it's pretty good but I felt the author took some liberties with her "facts" in the Author's Notes. She basically claims she found Margaret's family on the 1830 US Census which proves that they were free since they were listed as such. But there is no conclusive proof that it is indeed Margaret's family since the 1830 census only recorded the head of the household's name, which would have been Margaret's husband (assuming they were indeed free). But we don't actually know what Margaret's husband name was so there is no way to know for sure that this was her family.

This is the second time I've taken issue with an author's notes making factual statements about inconclusive evidence. Historical fiction readers rely on the author's notes to separate fact from fiction but with authors now taking liberties with what is actually factual, it could lead to a lot of misinformed readers.

Sorry, that's a little off topic but had to be said. As for the novel itself, it was good but not great. It uses the increasing trend of swapping between first and third person and it was also written in present tense, neither of which I'm a fan of. But Margaret's story was pretty moving, even if it's not entirely her own story, elements of it were probably the experiences of many other slaves.

BTW, this book is free today on Kindle.