Review: All Different Kinds of Free

All Different Kinds Of Free

About the Book:

Mama always told me bad things happen on Wednesdays, 'cause it's the middle of the week and the Lord just ain't looking then. I never really understood what she meant by that, because I thought the Lord was always supposed to be looking.
I'm grown now, and Mama's long since gone. But, oh, how I pray she was wrong about Wednesdays and that the Good Lord is looking down on York County, Pennsylvania this day.

Smart, hard-working, educated. A proud wife and mother. As a free woman of color in the 1830's, Margaret Morgan lived a comfortable life and envisioned a good future for her family, until the day her former owner sent a vicious bounty hunter to return her and her children to Maryland. Thrown back into a brutally cruel system, Margaret did the unthinkable in that era: she took her case to court. 
Her fate would to be determined by the laws of a time when one state considered her a citizen but another saw her as property. The landmark case of Prigg vs. Pennsylvania sewed the bitter seeds of the states' rights battle that would lead eventually to the Civil War.


But the heart of this story is not a historic Supreme Court ruling, it is the remarkable, unforgettable, Margaret Morgan. Her life would never be the same. Her family had been torn apart. Uncaring forces abused her body and her heart. Yet she refused to give up; refused to stop fighting; refused to allow her soul to be enslaved.   
This vivid, true story will draw readers deep into the heartbreak, terror, courage and indomitable pride of one heroic woman


My Comments:
If you are a regular reader, you know my taste in literature tends toward escapist--light, fluffy and feel-good.  This book is anything but light, fluffy and feel-good.  The ending is hopeful, but not artificially happy.  It is the story of the evil of slavery through the eyes of a woman born free, a woman whose life, while not luxurious, was happy and prosperous.  It is the story of a women who would not allow her soul to be enslaved.  


All Different Kinds Of Free is a beautifully written book I do not hesitate to recommend, unless you are looking for a light, happy, feel-good read.  Grade:  A.

I'd like to thank the author for making a review copy available via NetGalley.