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Summary
The extraordinary biographical novel about a Chinese-American woman who fought for independence and dignity in the American West—“an important contribution to the history of pioneer women” (Ms. Magazine)
Lalu Nathoy’s father called his thirteen-year-old daughter his treasure, his “thousand pieces of gold”—yet when famine strikes northern China in 1871, he is forced to sell her. Polly,...
Lalu Nathoy’s father called his thirteen-year-old daughter his treasure, his “thousand pieces of gold”—yet when famine strikes northern China in 1871, he is forced to sell her. Polly,...
2) Beloved
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After Paul D. finds his old slave friend Sethe in Ohio and moves in with her and her daughter Denver, a strange girl comes along by the name of "Beloved." Sethe and Denver take her in and then strange things begin to happen. Set in rural Ohio several years after the Civil War, this profoundly affecting chronicle of slavery and its aftermath is Toni Morrison's greatest novel, a dazzling achievement, and the most spellbinding reading experience of the...
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A year has passed and Hadassah has donned veils to conceal her identity and the scars that now mark her body. Believed dead, she works helping a doctor and becomes skilled at healing through faith. When Julia falls ill, Hadassah faces a difficult decision: should she return to the Valerian household, risking exposure and death? The flame between Hadassah and Marcus is rekindled, though Marcus continues to search for meaning and faith.
Author
Summary
The daughter of an African mother she never knew and a white sailor, Zarit - known as Tt - was born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue. Growing up amid brutality and fear, Tt found solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and the mysteries of voodoo. Her life changes when twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island in 1770 to run his father's plantation, Saint Lazare. Overwhelmed by the challenges of his responsibilities...
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Even though Sewing Annie Coats and her son, Gabriel, have managed to buy their freedom, their lives are still marked by constant struggle and sacrifice. Washington's Georgetown neighborhood, where the Coatses operate a tailor's shop and laundry, is supposed to be a "promised land" for former slaves, but it is effectively a frontier town, gritty and dangerous, with no laws protecting black people.The remarkable emotional energy with which the Coatses...
6) Jubilee
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The fortunes of a mulatto girl--as a slave during the Civil War and then as a woman freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.
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Series
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A Voice in the Wind transports readers back to Jerusalem during the first Jewish-Roman War. Following the prides and passions of a group of Jews, Romans and Barbarians, the story centers on an ill-fated romance between a steadfast slave girl, Hadassah, and Marcus, the brother of her owner. Is it possible for their love to flourish considering not only their different stations in life, but also Hadassah's unrelenting faith and Marcus's lack of belief?...
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"Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader's guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long...
10) In high places
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Series
Crosstime traffic volume 3
Summary
In the 21st-century Kingdom of Versailles, the roads are terrible and Paris is a dirty little town. Serfdom and slavery are both common, and no one thinks that's wrong. Why should they? Most people spend their lives doing backbreaking farm work anyway.
But teenaged Khadija, daughter of a prosperous family of Moorish business travellers, is unfazed. That's because Khadija is really Annette Klein from 21st-century California, and her whole family are...
Author
Summary
Two decades before the Civil War, a middle-class farmer named Samuel Maddox lies on his deathbed. Elsewhere in his Virginia home, a young woman named Kitty knows her life is about to change. She is one of the Maddox family's slaves--and Samuel's biological daughter. When Samuel's wife, Mary, inherits her husband's property, she will own Kitty, too, along with Kitty's three small children. Already in her fifties and with no children of her own, Mary...
12) Clotel
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Summary
First published in 1853 amidst rumors that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with one of his slaves, Clotel is a fictional chronicle of one such child. After Jefferson's death, his mistress and her two daughters are auctioned. One daughter, Clotel, is purchased by a white man from Virginia who impregnates her. Despite the promise of marriage, Clotel is instead sold to another man and separated from her daughter. After escaping from the slave dealer,...
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"When Adebimpe is ten, she is sold with her mother, Sanite, to plantation owner John du Marche. He soon renames her Ady but Sanite never lets her daughter forget who she really is - a person who can read and write and understand numbers. Most importantly, Sanite reminds Ady that she must never reveal these abilities to a white person, especially not her true name. Tasked with maintaining du Marche's home in vibrant New Orleans, Ady takes in the city...
Author
Summary
"Sixteen-year-old Lorena Leland's dreams of a rich and fulfilling life as a writer are dashed when the stock market crashes in 1929. Seven years into the Great Depression, Rena's banker father has retreated into the bottle, her sister is married to a lazy charlatan and gambler, and Rena is an unemployed newspaper reporter. Eager for any writing job, Rena accepts a position interviewing former slaves for the Federal Writers' Project. There, she meets...
Author
Summary
On the Caribbean island of Saint Domingue, an island consumed by the flames of revolution, a senseless attack leaves only one survivor-- an infant girl who falls into the hands of two French émigrés. They take the beautiful child they call Ruth to the bustling American city of Savannah. What follows is the sweeping tale of Ruth's life as shaped by her strong-willed mistress and other larger-than-life personalities she encounters in the South....
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Ramage hopes to enjoy a well-deserved leave when he receives new orders: commission and take command of the Dido-a massive 74-gun ship, that carries enough weight of metal to destroy a frigate in a single broadside, or sweep a ship's decks clear of men. Accompanied by the courageous crew of the Calypso, Ramage ventures to sea once again-bound for the West Indies where he faces the challenge of commanding this massive weapon of war.
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Summary
An enslaved woman is forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia. Born on a plantation, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a privileged life. Freedom on her 18th birthday has been promised, but instead of the idyllic life she imagined, she finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous "Devil's Half-Acre" jail.
Author
Series
Grace in Africa volume 2
Summary
When slavers blast into Grace Winslows life with guns blazing, they tear her family apart forever. As she watches her husband led away in chains aboard a ship bound for America, Grace finds herself scared, alone, and at the mercy of lecherous seamen. She passes her time at sea reading the Captain's Bible and forms a desperate plot to find her husband.
Author
Series
Grace in Africa volume 3
Summary
"This riveting conclusion of Grace Winslow's fight for freedom carries her from England to America's Deep South. After learning that her husband, Cabeto, is on a South Carolina plantation, Grace dons a sailor's disguise and boards the only ship headed for America--a detestable slave ship"--Back cover.