Slave and sister

By Sabra Waldfogel

Subjects: History, Jews, Fiction, Slaveholders, Women slaves

Description: "Adelaide Mannheim and her slave Rachel share a shameful secret. Adelaide's father, a Jewish planter in Cass County, Georgia, is Rachel's father, too. Adelaide marries neighboring planter Henry Kaltenbach, a Jew deeply troubled by slavery, and watches with a wary eye as her husband treats all of his slaves--including Rachel---with kindness. As the country's conflict over slavery looms ever larger, Henry and Rachel fall in love, and as the United States is rent by the Civil War, the lives of mistress and slave are torn apart. When the war brings destruction and Emancipation, can these two women, made kin by slavery, free themselves of the past to truly become sisters?"--