Henry O'Toole sails to America in 1848 to escape poverty and famine in
Ireland, only to find anti-Irish prejudice awaiting him. Determined
never to starve again, he changes his surname to Taylor and heads south
to the state of Virginia, seeking work as a travelling blacksmith on the
prosperous plantations. Sarah is a slave. Torn from her family and sold
to Jubilee Plantation, she must navigate the hierarchy of her fellow
slaves, the whims of her white masters, and now the attention of the
mysterious blacksmith. Fellow slave Maple oversees the big house with
bitterness and bile and knows that a white man's attention spells
trouble. Given to her half-sister as a wedding present by their white
father, she is set on being reunited with her husband and daughter, at
any cost.
This extraordinary debut novel heralds the arrival of an exciting new
voice in Black women's writing. The novel is first-person narration told
in alternating viewpoints. Set in 1848-1849 in Ireland, New York and
Virginia (primarily Virginia). It is an interracial love story set in
pre-Civil War America, and inspired by the true story of Huf's
great-great-grandparents. Along with love and race, it touches on themes
of identity, sacrifice, belonging and survival.
Research included contemporary slave narratives (printed to further the
abolitionist cause), digitally remastered audio recordings of former
slaves, legislation on the question of slavery in the mid-19th century,
historical texts on the Irish famine and first-hand accounts of English
visitors to Ireland at the time, the writings of Charles Trevelyan
(responsible for famine relief under Peel and Russell), historical texts
on the antebellum South, and visits to the historically preserved
Jubilee Plantation in Virginia on which the novel's plantation is based.
