Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson

Hello everyone.  I hope you're having a nice day.

As a history lover, nothing in the US could be better than Virginia, which is loaded with both revolutionary and civil war sites.  People used to stand on the site of todays Tidewater Community College to watch the clash between the two iron-clad ships, the Monitor and the Merrimac.  The Merrimac becoming an iron-clad in Portsmouth. Virginia is home to lots of native American sites, the famous Pocahontas for starters and is also the site of the real first Thanksgiving, not the pilgrims. There is the historic triangle of Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown.  Jamestown the site of the first permanent English settlement, Williamsburg the first colonial capital, and Yorktown where the revolutionary war came to an end. These sites are just a few of those in southeastern Virginia, not the entire state. It is really quite amazing. To get from Williamsburg to the next major town, Richmond, you might take Route 5, which parallels the James River. It was first a native American trail, then a carriage path, now a state route.  This road runs through a small area you've probably never heard about, Charles City County.  The James River Plantations live here, where some of our most famous founding citizens owned farms.  In fact, not only are there several signers of the Declaration of Independence residences but two Presidents who were next door neighbors.  Bet you never heard that before! If you go to Williamsburg or Virginia Beach on vacation, be sure to stop and tour some of these sites.  Sometimes, however, with the sweet comes the sour and with beautiful large plantations that means slaves.  People ripped from their lives, their families, and their homes to be forced to work without pay, often brutally. 

I recently read Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson.  This book follows the life of Pheby Delores Brown, a slave, who lives on a plantation is Charles City County.  The story is well written and grabs you immediately.  The author is very successful where many authors often fail, in making you care and connect with the characters.  No matter your age or race, you will hurt and root for Pheby and all the other people in this tale.  Be warned that this book doesn't sugar coat the slaves' treatment and frankly, I wonder if it got much worse...in fact, I know it did.  Most of all, this book will make you cry for our past and hope for our future.  I am amazed that a black woman could bear to write this but I cannot imagine it being penned by anyone else.  While not a feel good book, I promise you that if you read Yellow Wife, you will not regret it.