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A review by huncamuncamouse
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865 by Joyce Hansen
3.0
3.5 stars?
This is probably the "quietest" book in the Dear America series so far. There's not any over-the-top death and gore, or even misery. In fact, much of the book has a hopeful, optimistic tone. I appreciated having another non-white narrator. This time, we meet Patsy, who is continually underestimated by both the Davis family (her enslavers) and the community of enslaved people she lives with. Because she stammers, it's clear that people think she's "slow" or "dim-witted," but Patsy has a secret: she's taught herself to how to read.
This book coincides with the Reconstruction, a time I find few people in the US know much about. This book takes place right at the beginning of the Reconstruction, which accounts for its optimistic tone, and in the epilogue, we learn that Patsy and her friends have set up an almost utopian town. There's little mention of the backlash to the Reconstruction, the Jim Crow laws (which is one small complaint).
I like that the Davis Family, Patsy's enslavers, aren't just cast as a bunch sadistic people, but they're clearly not "good" either. Patsy's ambivalent feelings about them seem believable as both the formerly enslaved and the former enslavers are left in the strange situation of redefining their relationships to each other (paid employee and employer).
My biggest complaint about this book is that around the middle, the plot basically peters out. There's a lot of waiting around for a school teacher to come. There's a lot of waiting to see if land will be given to the ex-slaves and now sharecroppers on the land. A lot of waiting around does not translate to the most exciting story, but it fits, given the transitional moment the Reconstruction was. I thought this book does a nice job of addressing questions of what it means to be free and does a good job tracing the ways in which the formerly enslaved tried to carve out new identities for themselves in the years following their emancipation.
Dead parent count: N/A. We never find out who Patsy's parents were, but no surrogate family members die.
This is probably the "quietest" book in the Dear America series so far. There's not any over-the-top death and gore, or even misery. In fact, much of the book has a hopeful, optimistic tone. I appreciated having another non-white narrator. This time, we meet Patsy, who is continually underestimated by both the Davis family (her enslavers) and the community of enslaved people she lives with. Because she stammers, it's clear that people think she's "slow" or "dim-witted," but Patsy has a secret: she's taught herself to how to read.
This book coincides with the Reconstruction, a time I find few people in the US know much about. This book takes place right at the beginning of the Reconstruction, which accounts for its optimistic tone, and in the epilogue, we learn that Patsy and her friends have set up an almost utopian town. There's little mention of the backlash to the Reconstruction, the Jim Crow laws (which is one small complaint).
I like that the Davis Family, Patsy's enslavers, aren't just cast as a bunch sadistic people, but they're clearly not "good" either. Patsy's ambivalent feelings about them seem believable as both the formerly enslaved and the former enslavers are left in the strange situation of redefining their relationships to each other (paid employee and employer).
My biggest complaint about this book is that around the middle, the plot basically peters out. There's a lot of waiting around for a school teacher to come. There's a lot of waiting to see if land will be given to the ex-slaves and now sharecroppers on the land. A lot of waiting around does not translate to the most exciting story, but it fits, given the transitional moment the Reconstruction was. I thought this book does a nice job of addressing questions of what it means to be free and does a good job tracing the ways in which the formerly enslaved tried to carve out new identities for themselves in the years following their emancipation.
Dead parent count: N/A. We never find out who Patsy's parents were, but no surrogate family members die.