This Civil War novel follows the intertwining stories of a young woman from an elite Wilmington family, a runaway slave, and a dirt-farmer’s son turned fugitive-slave-catcher.
Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.
Tag Archives: Slavery
Joanna Catherine Scott. The Road from Chapel Hill. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Filed under 2000-2009, 2006, Historical, Novels to Read Online, Orange, Piedmont, Scott, Joanna Catherine
Charles Price. Freedom’s Altar. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, 1999.
Set in the violent, lawless days just after the Civil War, this novel explores the deeply complicated questions about how the South would recover and adjust to new ideas about race and class. Daniel McFee, a former slave who had fought for the Union, has returned home to western North Carolina to become a sharecropper on land owned by his old master, Madison Curtis. Despite good intentions, both Curtis and McFee have trouble adjusting to this new relationship. It’s especially hard to make any meaningful progress when the whole region is overrun with violent vigilantes all too willing to take matters into their own hands. The novel is based in part on the author’s family history. Freedom’s Altar won the 1999 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for the best novel by a North Carolinian.
Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.
Filed under 1990-1999, 1999, Historical, Mountains, Price, Charles
Charles Price. The Cock’s Spur. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, 2002.
In the mountains of western North Carolina in the 1880s, moonshining and cockfighting are a regular part of the rough-and-tumble life. Webb Darling, the self-proclaimed king of the moonshiners, rules the region from his hilltop cabin. In contrast to the cruel and conniving Darling is a former slave named Hamby McFee who dreams of making enough money to escape from his life in the mountains, where he still farms the same land he worked as a slave. Unfortunately, the only chance Hamby has at making enough money to leave may be to win it from Darling.
Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.
Filed under 2000-2009, 2002, Coast, Historical, Mountains, Piedmont, Price, Charles
Michael Phillips. The Shenandoah Sisters.
- Angels Watching Over Me. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2003.
- A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2003.
- The Color of Your Skin Ain’t the Color of Your Heart. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2004.
- Together Is All We Need. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2004.
Two young women from very different backgrounds must rely on each other in order to survive in the turbulent times following the Civil War in fictional Shenandoah County, N.C. Mayme Jukes is a former slave whose family members were killed by Confederate soldiers. Katie Clairborne is the last person left on the once majestic Rosewood plantation. In these novels, the girls usually face danger and emerge with a deeper understanding of race, friendship, and their Christian faith.
Allan Gurganus. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. New York: Knopf, 1989.
Ninety-nine year old Lucy Marsden spins an epic tale that covers the Civil War, slavery, marriage, and death. With an energetic and humorous style, she tells the story of her remarkable life. Married at fifteen to a Confederate veteran thirty-five years her senior, Lucy has survived long enough to be the oldest living Confederate widow. The novel alternates between past and present, telling the story of Captain Marsden’s experiences in the war, Lucy’s childhood, her close friendship with a former slave, and her life at present, where she is living in a nursing home in fictional Falls, N.C., a town in the eastern part of the state probably based on the author’s hometown of Rocky Mount. The book was made into a movie/miniseries in 1994.
Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.
Filed under 1980-1989, 1989, Gurganus, Allan, Historical, Novels Set in Fictional Places
