Hennepin County Library hardcover 359 pages
genre: historical fiction (based on real people)
This book has been getting a lot of buzz and I was interested. There were things I loved about the author's Secret Life of Bees and things that frustrated me as a reader. This book is absolutely wonderful!
Told from the points of view of Sarah Grimke' and "her" slave Hetty / Handful, the story takes us from their earliest childhood memories in 1803 Charleston to their "wings" in 1838.
It's 5am and I have to hurry, so this review will not be well-done.
page 145 - When young Sarah asserts that the slaves should not only be free but also equal to the white people, she realizes that she has her thoughts about this topic and "could only attribute it to God, with whom I'd lately taken up and who was proving to be more insurrectionary than law-abiding." I love that! The slave owners were using Scripture to "prove" their right to own slaves and to keep the slaves in line, but she was learning something different about God's intentions.
page 115 - When Sarah catches Handful bathing in the copper tub in her room, she is shocked. "I saw then what I hadn't seen before, that I was very good at despising slavery in the abstract, in the removed and anonymous masses, but in the concrete intimate flesh of the girl beside me, I'd lost the ability to be repulsed by it. I'd grown comfortable with the particulars of evil. There's a frightful muteness that dwells at the center of all unspeakable things, and I had found my way into it."
page 207 - When Thomas (her beloved brother) draws Sarah out of her depression by sharing news of Jefferson's writing and the possibility of the country being split by slavery . . . When she responds, "If the Union dies, as our old president says, it will be from lack of imagination . . . It will be from Southern hubris and our love of wealth, and the brutality of our hearts!" I love when he says, "There she is. That's my sister." It's sad that women of that era had such a narrowly defined range of options. Sarah had wanted to study law like her brothers, but was soundly discouraged when she stated her wish. Her father even forbade her entrance to his library which he had previously allowed.
page 291 - I love when Handful takes Sky to see Denmark Vesey's house. "He would've called you daughter if he'd had the chance." Handful is such a deep and amazing character. I love that her mother hadn't taken the money. It was in the story quilt all along! I love the quilting throughout the story and the meaning it had for these women who were never supposed to read or write (though I'm glad Sarah taught Handful).
page 297 - Sarah writes to her sister Nina, "It has come as a great revelation to me that abolition is different from the desire for racial equality. Color prejudice is at the bottom of everything. If it's not fixed, the plight of the Negro will continue long after abolition." How true!
Author's notes - when I first encountered Lucretia Mott's name in the story, I was a bit surprised because she really lived and worked in women's rights . . . and then I discovered that the story of the Grimke' sisters is based on women of that name who lived and worked in the abolition and women's rights movements. They were truly ahead of their time! They were speaking out well before Seneca Falls . . . how have I not heard of them before?!?! This makes me want to do some research. Kidd has a great bibliography and these are a few titles she highlights:
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