Just before I started this book, the Great8 took a trip to Charleston. We had a wonderful time, and while we were there, we took two tours. One was a walking tour led by a knowledgeable and articulate Southern lady who told us all about the Charleston way of life, the visits by George Washington, and the fires and earthquakes and plagues. She also mentioned two prominent free black men who owned a hotel and started an orphanage. No mention of slavery. The second tour was a carriage tour where we had a chatty young man who told stories about the various occupants of the mansions we drove by. Very entertaining even if the stories were totally fiction. When we got to the end of the carriage tour, one of the Great8 asked our guide to take our picture. Realizing his tip depended on it, he jumped from the carriage, grabbed the camera, and instead of the usual "Say Cheese", he said "Say slavery sucks!" I think we laughed the kind of laugh you do when you know someone is trying to be funny but isn't.
When I got home, I started reading The Invention of Wings which is a fiction book based upon the Grimke family, a prominent Charleston family from the early 1800's. The book focuses on Sarah Grimke who ultimately becomes one of the first and only female abolitionists. We also follow Handful, a Grimke slave who, like Sarah, is bright and ambitious but cannot fulfill her dreams.
There have been lots of books about the South in the pre-Civil War period, but I really think this one is wonderful. Maybe it's because I had so recently seen the neighborhood where Sarah and Handful lived, but I highly recommend this one. And I can't help but wonder how Sarah would have responded to the casual prompt of "slavery sucks". -June
