Ballantine Books
All We Were Promised
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A housemaid with a dangerous family secret conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape, in volatile pre-Civil War Philadelphia--"a gripping novel about standing up to impossible odds" (People, Best New Books)
The rebel . . . the socialite . . . and the fugitive. Together, they will risk everything for one another in this "beguiling story of friendship, deception, and women crossing boundaries in the name of freedom" (Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends).
WINNER OF THE BLACK CAUCUS OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION'S FIRST NOVELIST AWARD - BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, She Reads
Philadelphia, 1837. After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she'd expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she's locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives.
Longing to break away, Charlotte befriends Nell, a budding abolitionist from one of Philadelphia's wealthiest Black families. Just as Charlotte starts to envision a future, a familiar face from her past reappears: Evie, her friend from White Oaks, has been brought to the city by the plantation mistress, and she's desperate to escape. But as Charlotte and Nell conspire to rescue her, in a city engulfed by race riots and attacks on abolitionists, they soon discover that fighting for Evie's freedom may cost them their own.
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Book Details
ISBN:
9780593600153
EAN:
9780593600153
Binding:
Hardcover
Pages:
368
Authors:
Ashton Lattimore
Publisher:
Ballantine Books
A wonderful read! I don't want it to end. So much history regarding slaves in Philadelphia 1800's.
This story is one of resilience and of one told a few times before. I do think the author did good with description and telling the whole story. I feel like it does take awhile to get to the action and climax of the book. Overall it was a life of hardship turned feel good book.
All We Were PromisedA NovelBy: Ashton LattimorePublished: April 2, 2024Publisher: Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine/ Ballantine BooksGeneral Fiction (Adult)/Historical Fiction/ Multicultural Interest#AllWeWerePromisedBook Review:I really enjoyed this book, and I gave it 4 stars. This book is set in Philadelphia, Pa in 1837. In this time period Pennsylvania was a free state but it did allow the southerners to bring their slaves with them for a limited amount of time. If they were there past the allotted time, then they became free, and the owners couldn’t take them away. The time limit was six months. Everyone knew this and they worked around it by changing out the slaves within the time period. Even most of the slaves knew this law. In this book it talks about three young ladies. One who is free and from a very well-off family. The second one is an escape slave, and the third one is a slave. The well-off lady is getting involved with the abolitionist and tries to find ways to help her fellow citizens. She has befriended the escape slave and shows her around town. One day the slave young lady accidently runs into the escaped slave and knows who she is and ask her to help her. How do they know each well they were from the same plantation. This is their story, and it is quite interesting, and I learned somethings that I didn’t before. Things are never what they seem even when you wish for the to be. The free lady has an experience, and she learns what it feels like to be a slave even though it was only for a short period of time. the escape slave learns how to relay on herself and not to be too hard on the people she loves. The slave learns that she is stronger than she thinks and about the law of Pennsylvania.
I live in Philadelphia and thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel based on a real event in the city's pre-civil war era. Writing from the various perspectives of several women was an effective way to explore how different experiences impacted their expectations and lives. Highly recommended.
Award-winning journalist Ashton Lattimore’s first novel, “All We Were Promised,” is a well-written, enlightening tale of life in America’s so-called cradle of liberty for its black inhabitants during the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. It contains within its hefty pages all of the ingredients of a great novel: interesting, diverse characters, plenty of plot twists and intrigue, morality issues, social issues, and political issues, with enough real life historical accuracy and characters to make it feel grounded in reality. Most of the characters are sympathetic, though few without shortcomings, and the reader easily can forgive them those as they seem to be based on good intentions. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and look forward to reading more from this new author.Thank you to Ms. Lattimore, NetGalley, and Ballantine Books for providing me a free, advanced copy of “All We Were Promised” to read. My review is voluntary.
