I enjoyed getting to know Ms. Tademy's ancestors, and both labored and savored the absolutely painful journey to the Cane & Red Rivers. Many American blacks - including myself - will find similar parallels in our own family trees - bringing front and center the origins of our varying shades of vanilla, caramel & mocha sometimes whispered but never addressed. I wanted this book to last for a lifetime so I would never have to let go of Elizabeth, Suzette, Philomene and Emily - then I remembered these same women had been a part of my life all along in my own great-grandmothers, grandmothers, and Great-Aunts. Although I never knew her, I learned my great great-grandmother on my mother's side was born into slavery - she and several other ancesters were owned by the Cherokee tribe, & my mother's mother was born on a reservation in 1912. I remember as a child hearing my grandparents talk in soft tones in the livingroom early each morning - mostly what I overheard was about trials and tribulations - but neither my grandparents, great-aunts or others ever spoke about such things around us children. I'm grateful for that. In fact, almost no members of my family ever spoke of hate, racism, segregation or the myriad indignities some family members must have suffered in their lives in the presence of us children. My father's side of the family is heavily French. My father's mother was also sensitive about skin color - and also did not approve of my parent's marriage because she thought my mother was too dark to marry my light-skinned father. After my parents married and we children came along, my father's mother refused to allow us children into her home, so would hand out our Christmas presents to us while we stood on her front porch. As my father's mother grew older, of her eight grandchildren we were the only grandchildren who took care of her before she passed away after a massive stroke. We had known all along that she had specifically disinherited us in her will as "the issue of my oldest son" - and had left us a token $1 to split among the five of us. Our light-skinned cousins came to town only long enough to attend her funeral, collect the insurance money and clean out her bank accounts. Of my four sisters and brother, only my youngest sister and brother passed her "paper bag" test (skin color ligher than a brown paper bag). The demons of skin color preference are still a very sensitive, dehumanizing practice in America - even today some blacks are every bit as opinionated as some whites.
I found it interesting that Ms. Tademy allowed the stories of the lives of Elizabeth, Suzette, Philomene & Emily to unfold with very few personal judgements on the actions of either slaves, slaveowners or the gens de colour de libre (black citizens living in the U.S. long before Europeans arrived on its shores). In fact, unfolding the story in this manner allows the reader to come to his/her own conclusions about motives, personalities and the character of each subject - black and white - to create their own impression of the strengths, weaknesses and motivations of each person - and thereby pass whatever judgement the reader sees fit.
The central theme of this absolutely absorbing family biography is persecution and slavery - and becomes even more revealing of the strength inherent in women - all women, and their ability to get up time and again after being knocked down and held down by life, and to keep going even in the most inhuman of circumstances - to put one foot in front of the other and move themselves forward because "God don't make no junk". Although slavery is the most unnatural expression of man's perversion and arrogance - it's affect has indisputably corrupted the potential of generations - but slavery's assault could not and did not defeat the power of the human spirit or the ability to endure with perseverance, imagination and innate strength what would otherwise be unendurable. The world will never know the legion of irreplaceable giants of industry, medicine, law and the arts who were lost to the greed, arrogance and unspeakable evil of slavery - or the price that will ultimately be paid for its institution.
Thank you, Ms. Tademy, for the telling of this unforgettable saga because for many it reads like our own very personal autobiography.
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Read this book a long time ago I moved to Louisiana in 2011 and didn't really understand the culture. I was told this book would help me understand why their was Caucasian "Rachal" family and an African American "Rachal" family. This book opened my eyes to the reality that surrounded me. Both beautiful and sad love love love this book I have bought it several times to share with my friends and family.
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