Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson
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Web ID: 18013913Haunting
Haunting. The things Pheby and the others had to endure to survive was terrifying. Johnson does a fantastic job of bringing it all to life, in all its appalling glory, and making you feel everything – fear, happiness, sadness, hope, love, despair. It’s all there and you’ll run the gamut of emotions and yet never want to put it down as you get drawn in to Pheby’s strength and will to survive. Note: this does get very graphic at times, making it difficult to listen. Highly recommended!
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Gut-wrenching page-turner
In first-person narrative we see the world through the enslaved eyes of Pheby Delores Brown. She is biracial—daughter of an enslaved mother and white plantation owner—and when the story opens we learn how this identity has given her an unusual upbringing: the opportunity to learn to read and write (although illegal), learn how to play the piano, and the enjoyment of her father and his sister’s kind attention. Pheby also is in love with an enslaved man on the plantation, Essex, who urges her to join him in his plans to run away. But Pheby declines, naively trusting that she’ll be given her freedom on her eighteenth birthday as her father promised. But when her father is killed in an accident, Pheby’s circumstances abruptly change. Her father’s widow, jealous and angry, sells her. Pheby’s life changes forever. In a shocking reversal, Pheby survives horrific shackled treatment as she’s transported south, deep into enslaved areas. Eventually, she finds herself far from home in Richmond, Virginia, a jail and auction block named Devil’s Half Acre, run by a sadistic slave trader known as the Jailer. The Jailer is attracted to her, and Pheby becomes his “yellow wife.” This story is gut-wrenching; the slave traders’ torture of men, women and children is horrific and inhuman. But the story withholds sinking entirely into horror because of Pheby’s determination to survive. Her fierce protection for her children, the love she has for Essex, her own tenacity to bear up under wildly dangerous circumstances make the risks she takes all the more harrowing because we can feel what’s at stake. The Jailer’s mercurial personality—his lightning switch from generosity to sadistic cruelty—create such tense drama that the reader is constantly on edge. I stayed up well past midnight several nights in a row to read Pheby’s story. The horrors of slavery need to be acknowledged and I think this book has come at a perfect time as our society reckons with this past. Amazingly, Pheby’s character was based on a true story explained in the author’s note of a heroic enslaved woman, Mary Lumpkin, who lived at Devil’s Half Acre as the mistress of the slave trader and jailer. Yellow Wife honors Mary Lumpkin’s true sacrifice.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Brutality of Slavery in United States Exposed
An historical novel that tells one woman’s experience of slavery in the United States from 1850 to 1874. Be warned that author Sadeqa Johnson spares no details! Awarded four stars on Goodreads. Not as much for the writing as for the power of story. In 1850, Delores is the half-black child of an enslaved woman, Ruth, an herb healer living on a large plantation in Virginia. Delores’ early years are happily atypical because she is favored by both the plantation owner and his sister - both of whom treat her with unfailing kindness and affection. The sister takes Delores on special shopping trips, teaches her to play piano and, despite the law, even teaches Delores to read and write. The Master promises to send her North for schooling when she’s older and to free her on her 18th birthday. But life changes abruptly after the sister dies and the Master marries. His new wife takes an instant dislike to Delores and uses every opportunity (especially during her husband’s frequent absences) to punish and humiliate the girl. As Delores gets older and becomes recognized for her great beauty, her only consolations are her mother's steady love and her passion for an enslaved man named Essex. They plan to marry. The next 20 years, however, become increasingly difficult. Sold away from her home and bought by a brutal jailer to be his primary mistress, Delores and those she loves are treated with so much violence that many parts of this book are difficult to read. Starvation, rape, forced prostitution, vicious beatings, and torture are commonplace. Like other enslaved people, the quality of Delores's life depends on the whim of the Master. The violence also reflects this particular time period. As the Civil War approaches, southern slave owners are increasingly determined to use any means to prevent slaves from running away and Yankees from interfering in slaveholder “property rights.” A hard book to get through but a story worth remembering. Especially in light of the current political climate and facing significant demographics shifts in the coming decades.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Well written
I loved the way that this story was written and told. You definitely will create a space in your heart for the main character. Plenty of details but not drawn out.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
highly recommend this book
The authors note (research) brought this book to life for me.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Yellow Wife
Loved this book. I loved it even more after reading that the story was inspired by a true story.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Skillfully Written!
Sadeqa Johnson's writing is a clear depiction of slave trade and treatment during the 1850s in Richmond, VA. This historical fiction is based on real-life experiences of enslaved and free Black men, women and children who endured cruel and unusual punishment at the hands of an immoral, wicked and evil jailer. This story is skillfully written! Johnson characterizes and details the story events through the eyes of Pheby Delores Brown from her time as a young girl on a plantation in Charles City, VA and into her adulthood. Johnson's research has lead her to aptly describe the horrible times, torturous experiences, harsh consequences and ugly history of American slavery. On many pages, I was saddened and brought to tears. (Hopefully), I look forward to a sequel about Pheby Delores Brown and her life after choosing to stay with the jailer on the Devil's Half Acre. Highly recommended.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Important Story
In the environment we live in today The Yellow Wife is an important story to read.. Pheby is the mistress to a very cruel master, forced to endure his brutality but she is able to figure out how to survive.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com