...written by Robert Hicks, a resident of Tennessee. The story takes place shortly after the Civil War, in Franklin, a small town in TN. The character referred to in the title is Mariah Reddick, who is a mid-wife, respected for her birthing skills by all the women in the community, and thoroughly disliked by the white doctor practicing 'modern' medicine in that post-war village. Mariah has one son, who is a cobbler, self-employed maker of shoes. The son desires to give a speech at a political rally, and is beset by angry white men when he begins to speak. Theo. is severely beaten, then killed, so the story tells of the efforts of Mariah to find the truth: who killed her son, and why it happened.
Before the war, Mariah as a young girl, was given as a wedding gift to Carrie, who appears in this book, and is the subject of another book by the same author: "The Widow of the South." Mariah came with Carrie when she married and moved to her husband's home near Franklin, and was thus freed after the end of the war. She continued to live there, and provide birthing services to any who needed her help.
No happy ending here. Just some things to ponder. Think about how life was like for Negroes, after they were uprooted from their culture in Africa,forcibly brought to the US, living in subservience, both before and after the divisive war. Consider the monumental hardships they faced, when they were suddenly 'freed', and had few skills for survival in the society they entered post-war.
The author lives in TN, and apparently does a great deal of research for his books. Another tome, based on the life of Gen. Hood after the war, set in New Orleans is also based on some degree of factual southern history. Titled "A Separate Country", it tells of Hood's struggles to adjust and accept the circumstances of his military failures when the conflict ended.
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