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A review by kellyhager
The Cursed Ground by T.R. Simon
5.0
This is one of the most powerful books I've read in ages. The synopsis doesn't tell anywhere near the whole story. (Which obviously is good; who wants to know everything?)
This is set in two times--the early 1900s and the late 1800s, but pre-Emancipation Proclamation. Zora and her friend Carrie are in the early 1900s; Lucia is late 1800s. Even though Zora has only ever known freedom, it's clear that slavery still has a powerful legacy in her town (Eatonville). Because of this, basically any white face is cause for concern. There are exceptions, but not many.
But the value in this book is the way it lays bare how monstrous slavery was. Most of the white people in the 1880s section are what we would consider kind people. A couple of them are horrible, but most of them aren't. They would never whip a slave. But they would absolutely sell them. One of them says to another white person (and I'm paraphrasing). "Slaves aren't people and they aren't pets. They're property and they aren't your property. They belong to the plantation."
Read that a couple times and let it sink in.
It wouldn't even occur to them that Lucia is an actual person, with worth beyond what she can do for the white people in her life.
This book gave me the bad kind of chills.
But it's also incredibly well-written and, while it's hard to read, it's also hard to stop reading. We need to remember what we, as a country, allowed to happen in order to keep it from happening again.
Highly recommended.
This is set in two times--the early 1900s and the late 1800s, but pre-Emancipation Proclamation. Zora and her friend Carrie are in the early 1900s; Lucia is late 1800s. Even though Zora has only ever known freedom, it's clear that slavery still has a powerful legacy in her town (Eatonville). Because of this, basically any white face is cause for concern. There are exceptions, but not many.
But the value in this book is the way it lays bare how monstrous slavery was. Most of the white people in the 1880s section are what we would consider kind people. A couple of them are horrible, but most of them aren't. They would never whip a slave. But they would absolutely sell them. One of them says to another white person (and I'm paraphrasing). "Slaves aren't people and they aren't pets. They're property and they aren't your property. They belong to the plantation."
Read that a couple times and let it sink in.
It wouldn't even occur to them that Lucia is an actual person, with worth beyond what she can do for the white people in her life.
This book gave me the bad kind of chills.
But it's also incredibly well-written and, while it's hard to read, it's also hard to stop reading. We need to remember what we, as a country, allowed to happen in order to keep it from happening again.
Highly recommended.