To say I am emotionally drained after finishing this book, is an understatement. And she did it in less than 300 pages. I am saddened to discover that Octavia passed away some years ago but grateful I have other the rest of her books to draw from. We lost, in her, as master of her craft. Incase it wasn’t obvious, gave this book an easy 5/5.
This book was first published in 1979 and became a study in “the peculiar institution” of slavery. In this story, Dana a twentieth century black woman, is pulled from her time to 1820’s Maryland. Her first task becomes saving a young white child named Rufus, who is drowning in a river. After an altercation with his father, she is returned to her own time.
Her husband claims to believe she believes what happened to her, despite coming back wet and muddy from being in the river. She then travels back to Rufus’s time whenever his life is in danger. Her husband Kevin, doesn’t really believe where she is going until they manage to go together. Dana is forced to be seen as Kevin’s slave instead of his wife since it’s illegal for them to be husband and wife in this time.
As Rufus grows, Dana attempts to humanize him and prove that there is more to his slaves that just property. Dana and Rufus develop a sort of love hate relationship but we eventually discover they are related. Dana suspects she is sent back in time to make sure her ancestors are born.
She holds an uncertain place among the entire setting since she is an educated black woman. She is asked to teach other black slaves to read and writes. She is caught and whipped by Rufa’s father, himself. Her experience is an unusual premise. She is hated by some slaves because she ‘acts more white than white people’, but she is also hated by the white members because of her intelligence. It seeks to be a no win situation for her.
I think the part that stood out the most was the interplay violent power struggles between the players. The way slaves’ were forced to do whatever it took to survive and there is no small amount of courage in that act. There is also a disturbing double image of the 1820’s not much different from the 1976 experience. It is scary but I believe it’s true.
