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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"He hoped he would not regret taking up a serpent into the bosom of our family.", August 7, 2010
This review is from: Original Sins: A Novel of Slavery & Freedom (Hardcover)
There is a lot of history in Kingman's rather weighty 1840s novel, a tale that moves between Philadelphia and Virginia. Grace MacDonald Pollocke, originally from Scotland, paints miniature of ladies while awaiting the return of her husband, Dan, from Canton, China, where the pair met and married. When Dan arrives in Philadelphia with a cargo of goods to trade, he also brings with him part of Grace's past, Anibaddh Lyngdon, a runaway slave who has reinvented her life abroad. Anibaddh has sailed to Philadelphia with her two sons, ostensibly planning to introduce a new variety of silkworm to a thriving American market. But why would Anibaddh risk everything by coming here? Old, long-buried memories are awakened with Anibaddh's arrival, a troubled history of slavery and the exorbitant price of freedom. Suddenly Grace finds herself agreeing to a visit to Virginia with two of her enthusiastic customers who engage her to paint miniatures of family members at a family reunion and attend a revival by a hell-and-brimstone pro-slavery minister. Stepping into the lion's den with these unpredictable women, whose husbands hound runaway slaves with a vengeance and ample financial reward, Grace revisits her own past in Virginia, her Scottish roots and the secret she has harbored since fleeing to Scotland as a child. Subtlety never her strong suit, Kingman addresses many social issues in a lively manner and at length in this novel, the silk trade, slavery vs. abolition, complicated family relationships and the religious convictions of slaveholders that weight heavily on Grace's abolitionist heart and her natural skepticism as a tree-thinker. The result is a public trial where everything Grace believes in is put to the test, her adversaries adamant in their righteousness. 19th century America is awash with controversy born of the human quest for power and wealth, Grace forced to defend her own values and the price of friendship. Luan Gaines/2010.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Diversity at its Best, May 17, 2011
This review is from: Original Sins: A Novel of Slavery & Freedom (Hardcover)
Peg Kingman's novel, "Original Sins, A Novel of Slavery and Freedom," illustrates the great diversity of the "American Experiment," i.e. the vast differences among the masses who came to this continent - and that, in the sharp differences in attitudes toward southern slavery. To that end, author Kingman gathers, runaway slaves, English and Scottish transplants, and global merchants from the Far East. Side by side with elegant ladies and courtly manners are ruffians and bully boys from the docks transporting the people and merchants from a dozen countries. The most exciting adventures in the story of "Original Sin: A Novel of Slavery and Freedom" is the center of the novel when Grace Pollocke, the protagonist - now disguised by time and married name - agrees to return to the site of her own plantation past in order to uncover the whereabouts of another slave/relative. She is able to do this in her role as miniature portrait painter on commission to the arch evangelist, pro-slavery owners. If her identity were to be discovered, of course, she'd clearly be returned to slavery and doubtless sold. Without spoiling the ending for readers by giving it away, I cannot help but remark that the surprises at the close of "Original Sins: A Novel of Slavery and Freedom" are further testimony for author Kingman's skill in plotting. Without "reading ahead" in the book you'll be delighted with the new discoveries - and satisfied for they are not deus ex machine, all too often the case in other books In summary, Peg Kingman's "Original Sin: a Novel of Slavery and Freedom" in addition to a warm story of well-developed characters in a character-driven plot that offers us a fresh look at evangelism and slavery, the evangelist hatred of abolition, and abject racism, the residue of which lingers with us even today.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Slow, October 22, 2010
This review is from: Original Sins: A Novel of Slavery & Freedom (Hardcover)
I am sorry that I didn't stop reading this book when it started boring me. It was a very slow read, predictable, and weighed down in extraneous details that were not central to the plot.
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