Mary E. Trimble

James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird is a boisterous novel about abolitionist John Brown. The story begins in 1855.

Henry Shaekleford, 11, is a slave living in Kansas Territory when John Brown arrives in Henry father’s shop. Henry is wearing what many black children wore in those days, a potato sack. A violent fight ensues between John Brown and Henry’s master. John Brown, believing Henry is a girl and in danger, “frees” the young slave by taking the boy with him.

As time goes on, Henry, whom John Brown nicknames “Onion,” finds that pretending to be a girl is to his advantage. He becomes a member of Brown’s army as the renegade band of freedom warriors traverse the country, raising arms and ammunition for their battle against slavery. Onion is with John Brown and his army of volunteers when they fight for their cause in what becomes known as the Bleeding Kansas crisis of 1856. There were many other smaller skirmishers before the raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. Brown’s intention was to initiate a slave revolt by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Onion is with the group every step of the way, fearful, yet with courage and ingenuity is faithful to John Brown.

The Good Lord Bird was published in 2013. Although this is a work of fiction, the facts are based on actual people and incidents. The vivid language and colorful descriptions are often raw, but believable. The author James McBride is black, but in reading this book, I wondered if the author were white that the book would have been criticized for what now is considered insulting language and insinuations.

The interesting title of the book is characterized by a now extinct ivory-billed woodpecker, the “Good Lord Bird,” a large bird whose feathers were considered good luck. The bird’s persona plays a part throughout the book.

I enjoyed this novel. In researching the facts surrounding John Brown, I found truth in the book’s message. It’s a story of courage and faith, and of trying to right a terrible wrong.

Book Review: The Kitchen House

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Mary

In her debut novel, The Kitchen House, author Kathleen Grissom has given us a glimpse of life on a Virginia tobacco plantation in the late 1700s.

When a little red-haired white girl is brought to Tall Oaks, she doesn’t know her own name, nor can she remember anything of her past. Captain Pyke “gives” the child to Belle, a slave, as help in the kitchen house, a building quite removed from the main house. The girl is sickly and constantly in the state of tears. Before Captain Pyke, the master of Tall Oaks and also a ship’s captain, goes back to sea, he casually mentions that the girl’s parents and brother died at sea while on their way to America from Ireland. The traumatized girl learns her name is Lavinia McCarten and that she is seven years old. The Captain explains that he didn’t know what else to do with the girl; he couldn’t just leave her on the dock. By default, she is his property and he keeps her as an indentured servant.

As years pass, Lavinia becomes a part of the household, learns to cook, clean and to serve food. She’s loved by her black family, plays with other slave children and, although she recognizes that she looks different, is content.

The Captain’s wife, Miss Martha, mostly stays in her room in the large, grand mansion, especially when the Captain is at sea. Although she has two living children, she has had several miscarriages, leaving her depressed and dependent upon strong doses of laudanum. When Miss Martha sees Lavinia, she mistakes her for her long deceased little sister, and insists that the girl spend time with her in the “big house.”

As this remarkable story develops, I found myself in a different world, a world of exacting class distinctions and values. The majority of people had no rights, no say in where or how they lived, down to the tiniest detail. Yet, those in bondage showed love and fierce loyalty toward family.

The Kitchen House is a heartbreaking yet hopeful story of class, race, and dignity. I highly recommend it.

Book Review: The Invention of Wings

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Mary

One of my favorite authors, Sue Monk Kidd, a native Southerner, has written another memorable book, The Invention of Wings, a novel that spans 35 years, beginning in 1803.

For her eleventh birthday, Sarah Grimke is given a personal slave, Hetty, who goes by the name Handful. Horrified, Sarah tries to refuse the gift, but is seriously rebuked by her aristocratic family. Sarah’s father is a highly respected South Carolina Supreme Court justice and her mother a rigid taskmaster who doles out harsh punishment to their many slaves.

Handful, ten when the story begins, is third-generation slave. She’s adorned with lavender ribbons, like a wrapped present, when she’s “given” to Sarah. Although the gift cannot be rescinded, Handful and Sarah form a bond that will eventually shape their lives. Sarah refuses to treat Handful as a slave, but a slave she is and as such is expected to work long hours, then sleep on the floor in the hallway by Sarah’s bedroom in the event her “mistress” has needs during the night.

The book artfully toggles between Sarah and Handful’s stories. Deeply affected by the mistreatment of the slaves, Sarah silently rebels. She develops a speech impediment after witnessing the whipping of a woman slave, an impediment that haunts her the rest of her life. When Sarah teaches Handful to read, an act that’s against the law in antebellum South Carolina, both girls are severely punished.

Sarah has a good relationship with one of her older brothers and later, when little sister Angelina is born, the two girls become inseparable.

Divided into six parts, the book progresses through Sarah and Handful’s lives and the social attitudes of the time.

Sarah and sister Angelina move north, to slave-free Philadelphia, and begin promoting abolition of slavery and for women’s rights. Surprisingly, they find strong support for abolition, but resistence for women’s rights.

Meanwhile, Handful has reached middle-age and yearns to be free. Sarah and Handful have remained friends, keep up a correspondence, and struggle for their common goal, freedom.

The Invention of Wings is loosely based on the true story of Sarah and Angelina Grimke who became famous, even infamous, speakers against slavery and for women’s suffrage. Many of the situations portrayed are real-life events. Kidd describes the barbaric mistreatment of slaves in vivid detail. The story takes place pre-Civil War, and Kidd does a good job presenting both sides of slavery. I highly recommend this powerful and sweeping novel of American history.