All Different Kinds Of Free (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
An absorbing and fascinating novel based loosely on the true story of a freed slave captured and taken back into slavery. I’ve read several other novels set in a similar context – American slavery – such as the John Jakes trilogy and Mandingo. An interesting feature of this one is that the story is told from the perspective of a woman who has been freed and lived for a number of years as a free woman so her take on things is necessarily different from that of those who have spent their entire lives as slaves. As with all good historical novels based on fact it has had the effect of making me want to find out more about the facts. Few books make me want to reach into history and grab events by the neck and throttle them. Few books make me cry so much my dog gets frantic to comfort me as I read. All Different Kinds of Free did both. Jessica McCann builds an emotionally engaging, heartbreaking story out of a fundamentally unfair situation in American history. A free Black woman, Margaret Morgan, and her three children are kidnapped in 1837 from their home in Pennsylvania and sold into slavery. The bits of information about this tragedy are preserved in the record not out of a sense of outrage about the fate of this woman, but because her kidnapping violated a Pennsylvania law and raised issues of states’ rights. Eventually the Supreme Court decided that the Constitution protects the property rights of slave owners and no state can pass laws impeding those rights, thus fanning the growing split between North and South that led to the Civil War. In all this wrestling over “rights,” none of the trials addressed the issue of releasing these previously free citizens and history forgot about Margaret and her three children. Jessica McCann has rectified this injustice. She will break your heart in the process—she’s that good at bringing Margaret’s story to life. However, part of this novel’s sophisticated success arises from McCann’s refusal to portray even such a clear injustice in simplistic terms. Selfishness and cruelty intermix with redemption and forgiveness. The woman who is primarily responsible for Margaret’s kidnapping, for example, grows in our understanding so that she is partially redeemed in the reader’s mind. How can that be, you wonder? Through skillful, deep characterization and subtly built moral gradations in human beings within all walks of life. Another way that McCann modulates and softens her story telling is through her lyrical descriptions. The descriptions are integrated to reflect mood and emotional content so they never feel like bits you want to skip over. For example, when the young lawyer who will defend Pennsylvania’s case before the Supreme Court rides into DC, he looks about with interest on his first visit to the nation’s capital. Evening is falling and most people have headed home for the night. “This exodus had brought a hush to the scene, a bit enchanting and a bit eerie at once. Elegant maple saplings lined the road, casting skeleton-like shadows upon the ground as the sun dimmed and the lanterns glimmered.” The rawness of our nation is emphasized by the saplings—our unfinished state is both literal and figurative in the newly built capital that has yet to face its defining challenge in the Civil War. Will we stay true to our founding principles of liberty or not? These skeletal shadows throw a deathly aura on the scene. The natural sunlight is dimming and the artificial light of cynical manipulation is growing brighter. This atmospheric setting is furthered in a contrast: the coach stops to allow a free-roaming goat to go unharmed across the road right next to a high-walled, wooden pen of slaves held for auction. You can feel the foreboding of the young lawyer and his mentor as they ride through this scene. That’s excellent writing: communicating your characters’ inner states through the physical details of their world. The reader is spell bound. The grim realities of slavery and the difficulty of reading about them are intermingled with moments of joy and tenderness. McCann knows how to pace this story. You will sob—bring your tissues—but you’ll also feel better at the end of the book than before you began it. You’ll still want to reach into history and throttle a few folks, but then, as a nation, we shed blood to redeem the Margarets from their bondage and we continue to fight to achieve racial equality as a nation. I think this book’s overall emotional impact will remind you why the fight is worth your focus and energy. Why hope is worth holding onto, even when none seems anywhere around. I highly recommend this book.
What do You think about All Different Kinds Of Free (2011)?
Based on a real woman, this story really makes you think about the atrocities of slavery.
—mstree
Excellent read! Very historical and enlightening. Sad and beautiful at the same time.
—Brandi
Heartbreaking book that you just can't put down.
—makalap
