Ocean State Libraries

"Oprhaned aboard a ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin. Eventually accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium...

A lifetime of memories was waiting for Callie's wedding guests at her family's old South Carolina plantation. Three of them had grown up there alongside Callie, rescued from less fortunate circumstances and raised by Mama Pearl, the nanny who loved them like they were her own. In fact, Brie, Sela and Callie all seemed to be attached by some invisible cord. And that cord was tied to Bode Jessup, who had at one time promised to marry all three of the...

"Conjure Women is a sweeping story that brings the world of the South before and after the Civil War vividly to life. Spanning eras and generations, it tells of the lives of three unforgettable women: Miss May Belle, a wise healing woman; her precocious and observant daughter Rue, who is reluctant to follow in her mother's footsteps as a midwife; and their master's daughter Varina. The secrets and bonds among these women and their community come to...

From Edward P. Jones comes one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory—winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.

The Known World tells the story of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia. Making certain he never circumvents the law, Townsend runs his affairs with

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After living in London, John Fraser and his wife Anne return to her family's plantation on St. Simons Island, Georgia. John learns about coastal planting from Anne's father, Jock Couper, and her brother, James Hamilton, both world-renowned for their agricultural expertise. From day one it's a struggle for John, for he must not only master the techniques of planting and harvesting, but he must -- contrary to his deepest beliefs -- become a slave owner....

A “beautifully written” Pulitzer Prize–winning novel about prejudice and a distinguished family’s secrets in the American South (The Atlantic Monthly).
Seven generations of the Howland family have lived in the Alabama plantation home built by an ancestor who fought for Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. Over the course of a century, the Howlands accumulated a fortune, fought for secession, and helped rebuild...

Twelve Years a Slave (1853) is considered to be one of the most riveting and important documents recounting slavery in the United States. It is the heart-rending memoir of a free black man who is taken hostage and sold into slavery in a Louisiana plantation, his twelve years of bondage, and his remarkable escape to freedom. Since its publication, this classic has become a historical reference for its salient of depiction of life as a slave in the...

During a visit to her grandfather's plantation in Virginia during the summer of 1775, Felicity's loyalty is torn between her father and Ben, her father's apprentice who needs her help as he runs away to join George Washington's army of Patriots.