South End Branch African and African American Authors Book Discussion: A More Perfect Union by Tammye Huf

A More Perfect Union by Tammye Huf

When Henry O'Toole escapes the Irish famine and sails to America, he doesn't expect the anti-Irish prejudices that await him. Determined to never starve again, he changes his name to Henry Taylor to secure a job and safeguard his future. Travelling south to Virginia, he meets Sarah, a slave woman torn from her family and sold to another plantation. There she must navigate the power system of the white masters as well as the hierarchy of her fellow slaves. Even though Henry's white skin represents the oppression Sarah suffers under, and even though having Sarah at his side would force Henry to abandon his hopes of prosperity, their attraction is undeniable. They soon fall in love, but in 1849 on a Virginian plantation, interracial love is considered an illegal abomination. No matter how much they want to be together, Sarah is trapped on Jubilee Plantation and owned by another man.

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