The Underground Railroad
Why should you read another book about the Underground Railroad? Well, this is a book of fiction, based on actual slave histories, and it also has a few fictional flourishes, such as magical realism. One of the critics compares author Colson Whitehead to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Oh, yes, the novel also won the National Book Award.
The magic realism isn't as wild as Marquez's work, but there is a progressive community in South Carolina that appears to treat escaped slaves fairly, and there's an entire farm in Indiana that welcomes runaways before the Civil War.
Cora, the main character, is afraid to run away, as her mother apparently did. Mabel is a hero in the black community because the slave catcher, Ridgeway, was unable to find her. Another slave, Caesar, convinces Cora that she should go, especially after she suffers a horrible beating at the hands of her master, trying to save a young boy.
As we know the Underground Railroad wasn't an actual railroad. Anti-slavers and heroic escapees like Harriet Tubman found sympathetic whites and free blacks who provided hiding places for the slaves on their way north, usually Canada.
Ridgeway is the villain of the story. He shoots a captured slave in the forehead for singing too much. But his reputation is ruined when Cora seems to avoid his grasp as well as Mabel.
Ridgeway is a mere shell of his former self when he finally runs Cora to ground. There's some foreshadowing in the book, so we know Cora isn't returned to her master; the suspense is how she gets away again, which is just a tad unrealistic.
Another original aspect of the book is how it portrays the slaves on the Randall plantation, Cora's original plantation. There's a sort of hierarchy where some of the slaves are outcasts: the lame, the aged, the mentally ill. Some of the slaves actually help keep the others under control. Cora winds up at the Hob, the outcast quarters. But her grandmother and her mother left her a plot of land where she grows her own vegetables, defending it fiercely.
You will find yourself talking to Cora as the story progresses. Go North young lady, you'll say. The smart runaways head for Canada; there is no real sanctuary for escaped slaves in the states, especially south of the Mason-Dixon line, no matter how attractive it looks.
The magic realism isn't as wild as Marquez's work, but there is a progressive community in South Carolina that appears to treat escaped slaves fairly, and there's an entire farm in Indiana that welcomes runaways before the Civil War.
Cora, the main character, is afraid to run away, as her mother apparently did. Mabel is a hero in the black community because the slave catcher, Ridgeway, was unable to find her. Another slave, Caesar, convinces Cora that she should go, especially after she suffers a horrible beating at the hands of her master, trying to save a young boy.
As we know the Underground Railroad wasn't an actual railroad. Anti-slavers and heroic escapees like Harriet Tubman found sympathetic whites and free blacks who provided hiding places for the slaves on their way north, usually Canada.
Ridgeway is the villain of the story. He shoots a captured slave in the forehead for singing too much. But his reputation is ruined when Cora seems to avoid his grasp as well as Mabel.
Ridgeway is a mere shell of his former self when he finally runs Cora to ground. There's some foreshadowing in the book, so we know Cora isn't returned to her master; the suspense is how she gets away again, which is just a tad unrealistic.
Another original aspect of the book is how it portrays the slaves on the Randall plantation, Cora's original plantation. There's a sort of hierarchy where some of the slaves are outcasts: the lame, the aged, the mentally ill. Some of the slaves actually help keep the others under control. Cora winds up at the Hob, the outcast quarters. But her grandmother and her mother left her a plot of land where she grows her own vegetables, defending it fiercely.
You will find yourself talking to Cora as the story progresses. Go North young lady, you'll say. The smart runaways head for Canada; there is no real sanctuary for escaped slaves in the states, especially south of the Mason-Dixon line, no matter how attractive it looks.
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