Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America, McDaniel - B+

   This is the powerful Pulitzer Prize winning history of Henrietta Wood, a black woman who sued for her wrongful enslavement and was paid $2500 by her wealthy, white slaveholder. It is the largest sum ever paid as restitution for slavery. She was born in 1818 or 1820 in northern Kentucky. As a teenager, she was sold to a man in Louisville and taken away from her extended family. She was sold again during the Panic of 1837 to William Cirode, who moved Henrietta with his family to New Orleans. When Cirode abandoned his family and left America, his wife Jane went back to Louisville with Henrietta. They then moved to Cincinnati, likely because Jane was fleeing her husband's creditors. Henrietta became free upon entering Ohio and in the spring of 1948, Jane registered Henrietta's freedom in the local courthouse. Five years later, while working for a different woman, Henrietta made the mistake of accepting an offer to take a ride on the Kentucky side of the river. Her kidnapping and sale to Zebulon Ward was orchestrated by William Cirode's daughter and son-in-law, the two people behind Cirode's financial difficulty. Her kidnapping garnered widespread attention leading to a prosecution of two people in Cincinnati and a lawsuit on her behalf in Kentucky. The prosecution in Ohio was dismissed, as was the case in Kentucky. She was sold down the river to Natchez, where, at an auction, a cotton planter purchased her. Gerard Brandon owned several plantations and over 700 slaves. The outbreak of war disrupted the economics of the cotton trade and the Union's capture of the Mississippi in 1863 sent Brandon and hundreds of his slaves to Texas. Three years later, Henrietta was with Brandon for his return to Natchez.

    In June 1870, the Cincinnati Enquirer published an article about a lawsuit seeking $20,000 from Zeb Ward for abduction and enslavement brought by a mulatto woman and former resident of the city. Henrietta had returned to Cincinnati in 1869. Ward's primary defense tactic was delay, and more delay. In 1874, Henrietta's lawyer, who was also her employer, was shot and murdered by the ex-husband of a woman he had represented in a divorce case. A reporter, Lafcaido Hearn, began to publicize her case in a local paper. The case was presented before a jury of 12 white men in the spring of 1878. Two days of testimony were followed by confusing instructions by the judge. He did however emphasize that the controlling fact was whether Henrietta had been free in 1853. He also cautioned against an excessive award if the jurors found for the plaintiff. The jury awarded Henrietta $2500 and Ward's lawyers immediately moved for a new trial. The motion was denied a year later and Ward paid the judgement. She moved to Chicago, where her son Arthur, born in Mississippi before the war, was living. Arthur worked as a Pullman porter and in the 1880's went to law school.  He purchased a home near Washington Park, likely funded with Henrietta's award, married and built a succsessful law practice. Henrietta lived until 1912, the year her granddaughter married. Later in life, Arthur was featured in Jet magazine as the oldest working black lawyer in America. He died in 1951.

   This is a fabulous read and enlightening in so many ways. It is probably the first book I've read since 'Roots' in 1977 that delves with so much detail into the day to day of slavery. The simple fact that she was sold multiple times is eye-opening and heartbreaking. Thanks to Greg Weiss for the recommendation.