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Agate Bolden
May 2012
On Sale: May 8, 2012
432 pages
ISBN: 1932841644
EAN: 9781932841640
Kindle: B008164K6A
Hardcover / e-Book
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Fiction
Freeman, the new novel by Leonard Pitts, Jr., takes place in
the first few months following the Confederate surrender and
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Upon learning of Lee's
surrender, Sam--a runaway slave who once worked for the
Union Army--decides to leave his safe haven in Philadelphia
and set out on foot to return to the war-torn South. What
compels him on this almost-suicidal course is the desire to
find his wife, the mother of his only child, whom he and
their son left behind 15 years earlier on the Mississippi
farm to which they all "belonged." At the same time, Sam's wife, Tilda, is being forced to walk
at gunpoint with her owner and two of his other slaves from
the charred remains of his Mississippi farm into Arkansas,
in search of an undefined place that would still respect his
entitlements as slaveowner and Confederate officer. The book's third main character, Prudence, is a fearless,
headstrong white woman of means who leaves her Boston home
for Buford, Mississippi, to start a school for the former
bondsmen, and thus honor her father’s dying wish. At bottom, Freeman is a love story--sweeping, generous,
brutal, compassionate, patient--about the feelings people
were determined to honor, despite the enormous constraints
of the times. It is this aspect of the book that should
ensure it a strong, vocal, core audience of African-American
women, who will help propel its likely critical acclaim to a
wider audience. At the same time, this book addresses
several themes that are still hotly debated today, some 145
years after the official end of the Civil War. Like Cold
Mountain, Freeman illuminates the times and places it
describes from a fresh perspective, with stunning results.
It has the potential to become a classic addition to the
literature dealing with this period. Few other novels so
powerfully capture the pathos and possibility of the era
particularly as it reflects the ordeal of the black slaves
grappling with the promise--and the terror--of their new
status as free men and women.
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