The book opens in the 1790s with the Captain returning from a long voyage overseas to his tobacco plantation in Virginia with an eight-year-old girl, Lavinia, in tow. Her parents were indentured to him but died on the ship leaving her brother whom he sold his papers to another farm and her whom he brought back to his farm to fulfill her indenture to him. He places her in the kitchen house with Belle who really isn't thrilled with this. Belle is the Captain's daughter, though his wife, Miss Martha, thinks he is sleeping with her. He plans on freeing her, finding her a husband and sending her to Philadelphia when she turns eighteen, which she just has. Belle does not want to leave the only home she has ever known or the only family she has.
Mama Mae, who takes care of Miss Martha and things in the big house, takes care of everybody and she pushes Belle to be more understanding of the young girl who at first barely speaks and cannot remember her name or anything about herself. Mama Mae is married to Papa George who works in the barns and the two have four children: Dory, an adult who works with Miss Martha and has a sick baby from Jimmy who works in the fields; Ben who is eighteen and works in the barns and is in love with Belle; and Fanny and Beattie who are eight-year-old twins who help out in the big house.
Miss Martha suffered several miscarriages, but has two living children, Marshall, age eleven and Sally age four. Sally is all sunshine and light and sweetness. Marshall seems alright at first, but then his father gets him a bad tutor and he and Rankin the evil overseer fill his head with ugly thoughts about slaves and do things that help turn him mean. The slaves do what they can to try to protect Marshall and help him, but he doesn't seem to appreciate it. His mother takes laudanum and stays in a stupor to avoid dealing with the reality of her losses and her loneliness.
Lavina grows up not knowing at first that she's white and feeling that the slaves are her family, but eventually, it is pointed out to her and she is heartbroken. Meanwhile, her and Belle will get closer and Belle's situation will become more precarious, especially as the Captain is an old man and his son Marshall grows meaner each day and hates Belle. One day he will take over the plantation and then what will happen to her?
This book explores life on a plantation from the eyes of Lavinia a girl who almost straddles both worlds and Belle a slave who has a chance at freedom but seems reluctant to take it, perhaps due to its conditions of marriage to a man she's never met and leaving the only family she's ever known. You quickly become attached to these characters and really feel for them. Like Lavinia you want them to be a part of your family. This is an excellent read and will keep you up late at night turning the pages as it did me.
Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-House-Novel-Kathleen-Grissom-ebook/dp/B0034DGPEU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516023910&sr=8-1&keywords=the+kitchen+house
No comments:
Post a Comment