The Wedding Gift

Sarah Campbell is born into slavery on a large plantation in Alabama owned by the Allen family. Her mother is a house servant, and her father is the plantation owner, Mr. Allen himself. Due to her closeness in age to Clarissa, Mr. Allen’s legitimate daughter, Sarah becomes Clarissa’s personal maid, a position she uses to her own advantage by learning to read and write, skills that were against the law for slaves to possess. Sarah must hide this ability from everyone, including her mother and sister, or risk all of their safety.

Clarissa, the youngest child by several years and only girl, is spoiled and used to getting what she wants, including Sarah as her maid when she marries. Sarah doesn’t want to leave her family, and never stops dreaming of escape, no matter how often she’s told such dreams are foolish and unwise.

The Wedding Gift is told in alternating points of view, switching between Sarah and Theodora Allen, Clarissa’s mother. While parts of their story overlap, there are also gaps filled in by necessity by each narrator. The fact that Clarissa’s story is told by her mother, and not Clarissa, gives an outsider’s view of the spoiled girl, who probably would not be very reliable as a narrator, as she is selfish and narrow-minded.

Stories that take place during the time of slavery are both fascinating and horrifying, and the knowledge that this awful practice came to an end only makes it slightly better. Sarah’s fears and dreams for freedom are both very real and very scary, and Theodora’s own situation in her household is not much better, even though she is white. The title reflects the position that slaves were property to be sold or given away and there was little they could do to better their own situations.

I enjoyed this novel and recommend it to those who enjoy historical fiction and strong female characters.

Notes on the audiobook: There is a different narrator for Sarah and Theodora, and I always enjoy this small but impactful detail. Both women do a wonderful job with voices, inflection and nuances for dialog and convey emotion well.

There are many historical periods Nancy would like to visit but the pre-Civil War south is not one of them. She writes about her boys, books and life in Colorado at Life With My Boys and Books.