amythebookbat's review
4.0
This book fulfills requirement #2 ~ A book set in a country that starts with the letter "S". It is set in Suriname.
Elizabeth Samson was born as a free black in Suriname in the 1700's. I found it interesting how distinctions were made based on skin color. There were whites, blacks, and coloreds. The whites were mostly from Holland and France and there were also some Jewish. The blacks were generally slaves captured in Africa and sold to plantation owners, much like in the U.S. around the same time period. Blacks could have their freedom purchased or could be born free if their mother was free at the time of their birth (as was the case for Elizabeth). Colored refers to the mulattos or mixed race between the whites and blacks. They are also sometimes referred to as brown. Mulattos could be slaves or free. Mulattos could also marry whites, blacks were forbidden to marry.
Elizabeth was raised by her mulatto sister and her white husband. She was essentially raised as a white child. She was taught to read, write, play the harpsichord, and she assisted her brother-in-law with his business. She in turn became a powerful businesswoman. She ended up exiled to Holland for gossiping (which wasn't true) and after a few years, was finally permitted to return home after a lengthy court case. She was in love with a white man and lived as his wife for several years, even though they were never married. She later on decided to marry another man after the first had died. This brought on another legal battle and she eventually won, even though the man she was planning to died just prior to receiving the news that she would be permitted to marry. She ended up married to another man who eventually destroyed her empire after her death.
This was a really interesting look into a part of history that I wasn't overly familiar with. I certainly didn't know much about Suriname before reading this book. I recommend it for anyone who is interested in history and society.
Elizabeth Samson was born as a free black in Suriname in the 1700's. I found it interesting how distinctions were made based on skin color. There were whites, blacks, and coloreds. The whites were mostly from Holland and France and there were also some Jewish. The blacks were generally slaves captured in Africa and sold to plantation owners, much like in the U.S. around the same time period. Blacks could have their freedom purchased or could be born free if their mother was free at the time of their birth (as was the case for Elizabeth). Colored refers to the mulattos or mixed race between the whites and blacks. They are also sometimes referred to as brown. Mulattos could be slaves or free. Mulattos could also marry whites, blacks were forbidden to marry.
Elizabeth was raised by her mulatto sister and her white husband. She was essentially raised as a white child. She was taught to read, write, play the harpsichord, and she assisted her brother-in-law with his business. She in turn became a powerful businesswoman. She ended up exiled to Holland for gossiping (which wasn't true) and after a few years, was finally permitted to return home after a lengthy court case. She was in love with a white man and lived as his wife for several years, even though they were never married. She later on decided to marry another man after the first had died. This brought on another legal battle and she eventually won, even though the man she was planning to died just prior to receiving the news that she would be permitted to marry. She ended up married to another man who eventually destroyed her empire after her death.
This was a really interesting look into a part of history that I wasn't overly familiar with. I certainly didn't know much about Suriname before reading this book. I recommend it for anyone who is interested in history and society.
harryr's review
3.0
This is the novelised true story of Elisabeth Samson, a freeborn black woman in C18th Suriname, when it was a Dutch colony built on slave labour. She became one of the richest landowners in the colony and fought a legal battle for the right to marry a white man, successfully arguing that Dutch law superseded the colonial law against it.
The introduction explains that it is the result of twelve years of historical research, and I think that’s a strength and a weakness: the best thing about the book is the amount of interesting historical detail, but it does feel a bit like a novel written by a historian. It is solid but unremarkable as literature.
And perhaps because the personal stuff — the dialogue and the characters’ inner lives — is relatively weak compared to the background information which has obviously been so carefully grounded in research, I found myself always second-guessing her portrayal of Elisabeth’s opinions and motivations. Especially since there is a tendency for racial/social issues to be explored in a rather unsubtle way by being put in the mouths of the characters; they sometimes slip into talking in long paragraphs, as though they were newspaper editorials.
There are of course plenty of issues to explore. So for example, Elisabeth is presented somewhat as a heroic figure, standing up against the racial attitudes of the time, but she also kept slaves herself. And her battle for the right to marry a white man, and establish herself finally as a fully respectable member of colonial society, hardly makes her a fighter for the rights of black people more generally. Cynthia Mc Leod generally presents her as right-thinking but constrained by her time; she was after all in a vulnerable position. But a less sympathetic interpretation might also be possible.
But history is messy that way; and she would still be a remarkable figure whatever she was like as a person.
I found it engaging and enjoyable, although I was engaged more by the history than the fiction, so I wonder whether it might have been even better as straight biography. Maybe not.
The Free Negress Elisabeth is my book from Suriname for the Read The World challenge.
The introduction explains that it is the result of twelve years of historical research, and I think that’s a strength and a weakness: the best thing about the book is the amount of interesting historical detail, but it does feel a bit like a novel written by a historian. It is solid but unremarkable as literature.
And perhaps because the personal stuff — the dialogue and the characters’ inner lives — is relatively weak compared to the background information which has obviously been so carefully grounded in research, I found myself always second-guessing her portrayal of Elisabeth’s opinions and motivations. Especially since there is a tendency for racial/social issues to be explored in a rather unsubtle way by being put in the mouths of the characters; they sometimes slip into talking in long paragraphs, as though they were newspaper editorials.
There are of course plenty of issues to explore. So for example, Elisabeth is presented somewhat as a heroic figure, standing up against the racial attitudes of the time, but she also kept slaves herself. And her battle for the right to marry a white man, and establish herself finally as a fully respectable member of colonial society, hardly makes her a fighter for the rights of black people more generally. Cynthia Mc Leod generally presents her as right-thinking but constrained by her time; she was after all in a vulnerable position. But a less sympathetic interpretation might also be possible.
But history is messy that way; and she would still be a remarkable figure whatever she was like as a person.
I found it engaging and enjoyable, although I was engaged more by the history than the fiction, so I wonder whether it might have been even better as straight biography. Maybe not.
The Free Negress Elisabeth is my book from Suriname for the Read The World challenge.
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