Guest Author - Khara Aisha

Publishing is a business, just like anything else. Because the industry’s publicity and marketing machines push only the most current or popular titles, it is all too easy for a reader to concentrate only on what’s current and popular, and to forget about the books that were current years ago.


But I keep a list. And some time ago, Connie Briscoe’s A Long Way From Home was on it.


A Long Way From Home is set far in the past – in the mid 1800s, mostly on the plantation of the former president James Madison. (The plantation is real; the plot is fiction.) The novel centers around three generations of black women and their dreams, fears, loves, and aspirations. We first meet Susie, a house slave to the Madisons.


Susie is described as a hardworking houseslave with blazing, hazel-colored eyes.(And Susie's eyes are always blazing with passion and emotion. I don't think that normal brown eyes ever "blaze" in this particular fictional world.) Susie loves her daughter Clara, and her husband, Walker, who lives on a nearby plantation. She works hard and is fortunate enough to be able to wear Dolly Madison’s hand-me-down clothing. In this sense, Briscoe seems to tell us, Susie has a good life for a slave. But Susie has no time for ten-year-old Clara’s child-like attitude and playful ways, and certainly no time for Clara’s talk of “freedom.” Susie wants Clara to realize that the time for child’s play is over, that Clara has to learn to work hard and be a respectful house slave. Clara is subject to constant remonstrations – don’t say “aint,” always wear shoes, and remember to behave with the dignity of a house slave. (Ick.)


Eventually, Clara does grow up. In the meantime, James Madison dies and the ownership of Montpelier, the Madison plantation, goes through series of hands. Clara has two daughters of her own, but refuses to tell anyone – her daughters or her mother – who the father was. But one thing was for sure – the father was white. More long flowing hair and blazing eyes in store for this family tree.


As the money troubles on the plantation continue, slaves are sold away. Eventually, Clara’s daughter Susan is sold to a family in Richmond, Virginia. And it is while living with her new master, Willard Montgomery, and his family that Susan learns about the world outside the plantation, the war, and even a little about herself. She also falls in love and lives to see the freedom that her mother had once dreamed of.


Okay. I love historical fiction – it’s always a change of pace, and I love learning about history through the eyes of characters. But although a good story, A Long Way From Home is not my favorite piece of historical fiction. I guess I am being picky and proud in my own way, but the portrayal of the house slave mentality disturbed me, even though I could see that all the women were basically good, hardworking, human people. I got tired of reading about Susie’s blazing, firey hazel eyes, which apparently made her more striking than slaves with plain brown eyes. I got tired of reading about Clara’s high yellow skin. I kept waiting for someone to explain to someone else that skincolor was a silly distinction.


I got tired of Clara’s seemingly impossible naivete – if a child from Compton or Harlem can understand poverty, I can’t understand why a child slave, by the age of ten, would not have learned that she cannot “sass” white folks. I also got tired of reading about the plight and pride of house slaves. Was I suppose to root Susie and Clara on because they thought that it was important for them to wear shoes and dress and behave better than the field slaves? I got tired of pearls of wisdom like, “Field slaves and house slaves don’t mix,” and “Stop all that crazy talk about freedom,” and “what do I know about living free?”


Maybe that’s really the way that it was. Maybe I’m just a bit too stuck in the present. But those attitudes still exist today, although in different forms, and because I condemn them now, I can’t help but to condemn them as I look at the past. And I guess it is also unpleasant to be reminded of where it all started – on those plantations. But any discomfort aside, I am glad that A Long Way From Home was on my reading list, and sorry that it took me so long to get around to it. And I think that this is a great read for a book club discussion.