J. California Cooper · 1998 · overland

J. California Cooper's 1998 novel, an epic of slavery, freedom, and family. It begins in the 1760s with two friends, Kola and Suwaibu, seized in Africa and carried to America, and follows their descendants down to Mor and Lifee, who meet enslaved on a Texas plantation. When emancipation comes, they set out with a makeshift family to find land of their own, surviving the violence of the Reconstruction South. The route runs from Africa across the American South.

1. 1
   West Africa

   In the 1760s two young friends, Kola and Suwaibu, are seized by slavers on the coast of West Africa, sending something of themselves rushing on toward an unknown future.

2. 2
   Charleston

   Carried across the Middle Passage and sold in America, they begin generations of bondage that will scatter their blood across the South.

3. 3
   Texas

   A century later their descendants Mor and Lifee, forced into marriage on a Texas plantation, fall in love just as word of emancipation finally reaches them.

4. 4
   Georgia

   With a family gathered from other freed people, they trek east across the ruined South in search of land to call their own, building a home against constant threat and forced again and again to begin anew.