The war has ended, Union soldiers are in the South making sure that the formerly enslaved people know that they are free to leave if they wish. Tensions are still high as white land owners face the change, Black workers try to understand their options, and town folks adjust to a new reality.
George Walker and his wife Isabelle live on a property outside of the town of Old Ox, Georgia. Being from a family that moved South from Nantucket, George has never had enslaved workers on their land. They never needed workers as George inherited enough from his father to never have to work. He does enjoy wandering his property.
As George wanders, thinking of the news of his son who when to fight in the war, he comes across two brothers camping in his woods. Prentiss and Landry were born on the neighboring farm. When they were told of their freedom, they left.
George and Prentiss develop a kind of friendship. Isabelle has taken to Landry - a calm, large man who does not talk much due to an injury (read: beating) when he was younger.
When George hires Prentiss and Landry to help him start a small peanut farm - paying them the wage he would pay any man - some of the people in town do not agree with his ideas.
Harris has written a beautiful book. It is set in a hard time in US history, but he shows the positives and negatives of people at the time. My dread of reading of the time period were unfounded. Though there are hard parts of the book, he does not dwell on them, but gives his characters room to grow and have hope. Read this book.
Harris, Nathan. (2021). The Sweetness of Water. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
No comments:
Post a Comment