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Title details for Sweet Taste of Liberty by W. Caleb McDaniel - Available

Sweet Taste of Liberty

A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America

by W. Caleb McDaniel
Paul Heitsch
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available
The unforgettable saga of one enslaved woman's fight for justice—and reparations
Born into slavery, Henrietta Wood was taken to Cincinnati and legally freed in 1848. In 1853, a Kentucky deputy sheriff named Zebulon Ward colluded with Wood's employer, abducted her, and sold her back into bondage. She remained enslaved throughout the Civil War, giving birth to a son in Mississippi and never forgetting who had put her in this position. By 1869, Wood had obtained her freedom for a second time and returned to Cincinnati, where she sued Ward for damages in 1870. Astonishingly, after eight years of litigation, Wood won her case: in 1878, a Federal jury awarded her $2,500. More important than the amount, though the largest ever awarded by an American court in restitution for slavery, was the fact that any money was awarded at all.
McDaniel's book is an epic tale of a black woman who survived slavery twice and who achieved more than merely a moral victory over one of her oppressors. Above all, Sweet Taste of Liberty is a portrait of an extraordinary individual as well as a searing reminder of the lessons of her story, which establish beyond question the connections between slavery and the prison system that rose in its place.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    January 14, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781541441330
      • File size: 283714 KB
      • Duration: 09:51:04

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      With a historian's dispassionate clarity and a bit of irony, narrator Paul Heitsch, delivers the singular story of Henrietta Wood, a free Black woman who was living and working in Cincinnati in 1853 when she was kidnapped, taken south, and sold "down the river" to a Mississippi plantation owner. Wood went on to return home after the Civil War, regain her freedom, and raise a son. She also successfully sued the white man who sold her 20 years earlier for damages, the only formerly enslaved person ever to do so. Although it seems a missed opportunity not to have cast a Black narrator, this Pulitzer Prize-winning history provides a comprehensive, multifaceted overview of how slavery worked in the United States and is an absolute must-listen for our times. B.P. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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