from Middle English “wenchel,”1 a: a girl, maid, young woman a female child.
Jones’s The Known World as it tells the story of four black enslaved women in the years preceding the Civil War. But the compelling story soars above its limitations, illuminating a deeply sad and flawed part of America’s history.Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s enchanting and unforgettable novel, based on little-known fact, combines the narrative allure of Cane River by Lalita Tademy and the moral complexities of Edward P. The unfortunate cover art places the setting in a later time period, and the writing sometimes has clarity problems that a better edit may have helped. Although only Lizzie is brought to life in the fullest sense, the others are intriguing, even in their mystery. The complex and tragic lives of these “wenches” of their masters is well-explored. The final third sends her back to Ohio to face the possibility of her own freedom one last time.
The middle of the novel looks back on Lizzie’s life and the circumstances that brought her and her two children into the ever-changing dynamic of her slaveholder’s household.
Lizzie betrays them, with disastrous results. In the summer of 1852, the summer friends and a trusted slave, Philip, meet a Quaker woman and talk together about escaping. There is even a nearby resort for more prosperous blacks. She wants her freedom and plants seeds in the others, who begin to question their own acceptance of their deeply compromised lives.įree black men and women are employed at the hotel. One year a spirited and angry newcomer who calls herself Mawu joins them. They meet yearly in the free state of Ohio at the summer resort Tawawa House. Three black slave women-Lizzie, Sweet and Reenie-have achieved a certain social status in the complex world of American antebellum plantation society: they are “mistresses” of their owners, with attitudes toward them ranging from deep hatred to what verges on love.
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