WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK
An astounding multigenerational saga, Red Clay chronicles the interwoven lives of an enslaved Black family and their white owners as the Civil War ends and Reconstruction begins.
In 1943, when a frail old white woman shows up in Red Clay, Alabama, at the home of a Black former slave–on the morning following his funeral–his family hardly knows what to expect after she utters the words “… a lifetime ago, my family owned yours.” Adelaide Parker has a story to tell–one of ambition, betrayal, violence,
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This richly conceived novel explores a mother’s direct experience in the American Civil War. In October 1863, Susannah Shelburne, 36, is living in South Carolina with her husband, Jacob. Their son Francis is a Confederate soldier, a choice which caused great familial conflict, as both parents oppose the Southern cause. When he is wounded near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Susannah sets out alone to bring him home.
She finds Francis delirious with trauma and pain. But soon mother and son are caught up in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and Francis becomes a prisoner of war. Amid hardship and unspeakable violence,
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