The American Daughters
A Novel
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“An enthralling tale of a secret resistance movement run by Black women in pre-Civil War New Orleans.”—Time
“Stirring . . . In telling this important, neglected history with imagination-fueled research, The American Daughters offers an inspiring story of people who show a way forward with their perseverance, bravery and love.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
AN ELECTRIC LIT AND KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Ady, a curious, sharp-witted girl, and her fierce mother, Sanite, are inseparable. Enslaved to a businessman in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the pair spend their days reminiscing about their family’s rebellious and storied history and dreaming of a loving future. When mother and daughter are separated, Ady is left hopeless and directionless until she stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn and meets Lenore, a free Black woman with whom she becomes fast friends. Lenore invites Ady to join a clandestine society of spies called the Daughters. With the courage instilled in her by Sanite—and with help from these strong women—Ady learns how to put herself first. So begins her journey toward liberation and imagining a new future.
The American Daughters is a novel of hope and triumph that reminds us what is possible when a community bands together to fight for their freedom.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A mother’s love gives her daughter the strength to fight for liberation in this beautiful and stirring historical novel. Ady is an intelligent young girl growing up with her mother, Sanite, in 1862 New Orleans, where they’re both enslaved. Ady grows up learning about the free community of escaped slaves that her mother was born into, filling her with the hope and imagination she’ll need when she and Sanite are tragically torn apart. We were utterly compelled by the coming-of-age tale that takes up the first half of this book, full of heart-wrenching lessons that Ady takes into her teens when she bravely joins an underground Black resistance movement called the Daughters. Throughout Ady’s often perilous journey, author Maurice Carlos Ruffin gives us insights into seldom-explored aspects of slavery, like the contrast between the physical torture of forced-labour camps and the isolation of city life. This is an unforgettable story about the battle for liberation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ruffin (The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You) sets his potent latest in pre–Civil War New Orleans, where an enslaved girl joins a secret resistance movement run by women. Ady is raised by her mother, Sanite, who came of age in a runaway settlement deep in the forests and swamps of Louisiana and teaches Ady basic survival skills such as hunting, planting, and foraging healing herbs. She's seven when they are sold to John du Marche and forced to work at his townhouse, and a preteen when Sanite dies from yellow fever, leaving Ady lonely, scared, and confused until she meets Lenore, the young free African American woman who owns the Mockingbird Inn, an integrated establishment in the French Quarter. There, Ady experiences a facsimile of freedom along with a burgeoning friendship with Lenore, who hires her to work at the inn during hours when she's not expected by du Marche. After a dramatic incident involving a slave hunter's visit to the Mockingbird, Ady learns that Lenore has been hiding a secret: the Mockingbird is a cover for a web of women engaging in espionage and violent resistance against slavery. Ruffin's dignified prose and focus on the bonds of women of color help elevate the novel from the tropes of slavery narratives, and he paints a vibrant picture of antebellum New Orleans. Readers won't be able to resist this stirring story of freedom by any means necessary.
