Presents a narrative that recreates the events during the War of 1812 that inspired hundreds of slaves to pressure British admirals into becoming liberators by using their intimate knowledge of the countryside to transform the war.
Presents the diary of Priscilla Bond, a young woman who left the genteel Protestant seaboard culture of Chesapeake Bay and moved to a frontier plantation in south Louisiana with her husband in 1865, and witnessed the brutality of the Civil War.
Uncle Tom, a slave in the American South, maintains his dignity despite the suffering and eventual death brought upon him by the cruel treatment of a Yankee overseer. Includes an introduction by Jane Smiley, commentary, and a reading group guide.
Huey Valentine, owner of Gallery Valentine, and his friend, retired lawyer Abigail Thurmond, take artist Rebecca Simms under their wing when she arrives on Pawleys Island to hide from her past and begin a new life.
The author, a descendant of Charleston plantation owner Elias Ball, tells about his experiences attempting to trace the history of his family and the genealogies of the slave families once owned by the Balls.
Henry Townsend, a African farmer and former slave, is befriended by the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County and becomes proprietor of his own plantation, as well as of his own slaves.
Harvard freshman Quentin Compson tries to piece together the strange story of Thomas Sutpen, an ambitious planter whose plans to build a dynasty in Mississippi in 1833 go tragically wrong.
