Sign-In
Cart
Hired Out
Paperback
General FictionHistorical Fiction
ISBN13: 9781951985479
Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing
Published: Jul 24 2020
Pages: 238
Weight: 0.67
Height: 0.54 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
America Murphy was a slave as was her bi-racial mother. They were owned by her father, Jeremiah, who operated a livery stable in mid-nineteenth century Lexington, Kentucky. Working from Jeremiah's three room dwelling, America assisted her mother as laundress for her father's clients.
America wished to read to enhance her status as a respected black servant, wondering how anyone could gain information by looking at a piece of paper. Nevertheless, with the help of Uncle Eli, she suggested that she could earn more money for her father and likewise educate herself by learning from books and papers. Following his own inquiries, Jeremiah negotiated a contract to lease America as a house slave. She was hired out.
Her journey as a rented slave began in 1854. Along the way, she earned the gratitude of slave owners and their children. Using her intelligence and kindness, she allied herself with fellow servants. She frustrated a would-be kidnapper and stymied another assailant. America learned to read between the color lines. Her budding romance with Jerry, a literate slave, survived hiring leases to three slaveholders and offered hope for the future when they jumped the broom in 1859.
Also in
General Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
Anniversaries, Volume 2: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl, April 1968-August 1968
Johnson, Uwe
Paperback
Philip Roth: Novels 1973-1977 (Loa #165): The Great American Novel / My Life as a Man / The Professor of Desire
Roth, Philip
Hardcover
John Updike: Novels 1978-1984 (Loa #339): The Coup / Rabbit Is Rich / The Witches of Eastwick
Updike, John
Hardcover
Selected Writings: Robert Musil: Young Torless, Three Women, the Perfecting of a Love, and Other Writings
Agee, Joel
Musil, Robert
Paperback
Before Gatsby: The First Twenty-Six Stories
Baughman, Judith
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Bruccoli, Matthew J.
Paperback