We live in an age of protests and the hype of social justice about everything from the Israeli/Hamas War to gender identity, and racism. I promise NOT to wax political here. However, the fact that slavery still exists is an ugly blight upon humanity, in my humble opinion. And it's also my opinion that it isn't addressed enough. Perhaps the saddest fact of all is that today's slavery doesn't just include adults, but children are the prey of sex-traffickers throughout the world, and especially in the U.S.--a fact I find shameful.
Slavery has existed for thousands of years. It's nothing new. If you read my Antonius Trilogy, you know of the plight of slaves in the Roman Empire. Such people were of all races, too. Not just one. Slavery was the likely destiny of anyone captured during wars against Rome. Sometimes, if a captive was literate, they were fortunate enough to become a household slave; perhaps teaching children in a luxurious domus or villa. Others who lacked any sort of education were not considered as valuable. They were either destined for the arena or sold into hard labor in mines and quarries, where their lives would be intolerable and brief.
Of course, the most publicized slavery one hears about these days, is that which occurred in the Americas, mostly between the 17th and 19th centuries. Again, let me emphasized that even slavery in North America included every race. Native Americans often warred against one another and as a result, sometimes became enslaved through inter-tribal warfare. During the Colonial period, Europeans who were indentured servants were sometimes not treated as servants at all, but as slaves, and harshly punished or treated unfairly. Just as tragic were Chinese workers on the western coast who came hoping to find steady work, only to be persecuted.
However, the most deplorable treatment of slaves was en masse directed toward innocent African people, ensnared in their own countries by the slave trade and shipped to the Caribbean and North American Colonies. Their lives were unpredictable, unstable, and steeped in cruelty, from horrific slave ships to back-breaking work on plantations. I wound up reading a lot on Black American enslavement during my research for West of Santillane.
This week, I'm sharing a review I did recently on a novel entitled Yellow Wife, written by Sadeqa Johnson. "Yellow" people were Black Americans sharing lineage with whites. Sometimes they were termed as "mulattos". It's a hard-hitting book and not always pleasant in its depictions. However, it's a work that I encourage you to consider reading. Canceling history is the wrong choice, in my opinion. History teaches us and should the lesson be distasteful, uncomfortable, or inhumane, it should remind us that that particular history was once lived should NEVER be allowed to replay itself.
I hope you'll find my review useful and consider reading Johnson's work. She's a gifted writer, and this book is most impactful.
Read ON, everyone!
Image from Wikimedia Commons
Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson
By Brook Alle n
Johnson’s portrayal of Pheby Dolores Brown is a brutally realistic portrait of enslaved people prior to the American Civil War.
Pheby is sold to the South’s most infamous slave prison in Richmond, Virginia and finds herself coerced into becoming mistress to the notorious “Jailer” himself. She is faced with the bitter truth that despite her becoming the mother of his children, she is still considered nothing but a slave. When her lover is brought to the prison and left in horrifying conditions, she risks everything to get him and her son to freedom—ever putting others ahead of herself.
Johnson writes with the passion of a woman whose heart is broken for her characters. She pulls the reader in through her realism and ability to create dialogue and settings that are both unputdownable and horrifying. She exposes slavery for what it was--the grime and deplorable conditions, the bondage, and hopelessness.
This was a fabulously written novel, and even though it was brutally realistic, it isn't without the joy and happiness that people from all walks of life and periods experience--enslaved or free. It was obvious that Johnson wrote it from her soul. Her world-building is intricate and mesmerizing—from the degradation of imprisonment and the jail’s foul environs to the tantalizing glimpses of freedom in carriage rides and jaunts to Church.
A worthy read for ALL races.
Buy the Book!
***To purchase, click the book cover for the link!***
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