This book has been difficult to read, but also pulling me in so that I hardly wanted to put the book down.
It takes place in what I'm assuming is the beginning of the civil war and three children meet in the forest. One is a ten year old boy named Luke, a runaway slave who was left behind by the group of older men who were to leave the night he left. The next is Daylily who is the only survivor after Yankees killed her pregnant friend, now a former slave since her master is assumed to be dead too. Lastly is Caswell, the seven year old son of a slave owner. All of the slaves left on his plantation ran away or were killed by Yankees in a raid and it's left to the reader to assume that his pregnant mother was killed by them too.Which leaves Caswell essentially parent-less since his father went off to battle.
When reading the two passages and ones that popped up throughout the book about Daylily's friend and Caswells mother almost all of them mentioned their pregnancies in some capacity. Each time it seemed to be a metaphor for the situation all of them were put into. Caswell had his life ahead of him, sure one of a sociopath, but at the least a successful sociopath.
The deaths of each of the pregnant women seemed to say something too, Daylily's friend was cut open and laid out like a hog, the same way Life would treat Daylily. She was born into slavery and would not have a life of luxury, having to fight for her humanity even if slavery was abolished.
While Caswell’s mother simply disappeared, no one knows if she had a terrible and degrading death or not. She is only confirmed to be dead since the plantation she was thought to have gone to was burned down. Which shows a bit as to how Caswell would be treated in life too. His tragedies were not and would not ever be completely comparable to the atrocities that Luke and Daylily had suffered through. He would be treated fairly well and if he were to be killed or have done something terrible he’d be able to die in peace with the possibility of being remembered as he was or even hyped up. Whereas Luke and Daylily would be worth less than dirt, alive or dead.
Luke’s mother was also killed in a horrible manner. Their master believed her to have too much of a free spirit, she hadn’t done anything wrong at all either. But for fear of her giving anyone else ideas just because of the way she thought she was whipped to death. Luke heard her screaming, pleading for them to stop. He heard his mother get killed by the man who he had to serve each day. That alone was enough reason for him to run away, yet he’s risking the same thing happening to him by leaving. It says a lot about how strong willed he is and just how much that cut runs deep when he’s leaving the closest thing he has to family back on the plantation.
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