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The extraordinary life of Henrietta Wood--a formerly enslaved woman sold back into slavery, eventually freed again, and who then sued the man who had sold her back into bondage, and won.
Deeply researched and show[s] commendable detective work... Demonstrate[s] the riches awaiting us in narrating the hitherto untold and complex stories of slavery and emancipation in the United States.
The reader not only follows the fascinating narrative of a woman who lost her freedom, but also learns of the intricacies of slavery in a border state like Kentucky, the pain of separation from loved ones, and the ordeals of being sold "down the river," surviving on a large cotton plantation, and being an enslaved refugee in Texas during the Civil War... It is an enlightening account from the point of view of an enslaved woman about the arduous trip — and the subsequent years — that many enslaved people were forced to endure by their masters to avoid their being liberated by Union armies... [McDaniel] has turned these into a captivating account of this period, revealing how the legal and economic aspects of the institution of slavery interacted in very personal and human ways with those who were kept enslaved.
As a whole, Sweet Taste of Liberty is the fruit of excellent scholarship and a timely and significant addition to the field of U.S. racial history.
W. Caleb McDaniel is Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities and Professor and Chair of the History Department at Rice University. His website is wcaleb.org and he can be found on Twitter at @wcaleb.