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A review by chameleonhound
Chariot on the Mountain by Jack Ford
2.0
Kitty's story is undoubtedly an important one, but this telling is far from great. After the first three chapters gave me a heavy dose of the presumed white savior version of the story, I chose to skip most of the pages that focused on the white characters. This made the story much better, though the author would have us believe that Kitty's children had no voices of their own, and slept through the majority of the journey.
I would love to read a telling of this story by someone who can put more effort into the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of the actual black historical figures, and not waste so much space defending their white counterparts who "just never felt right about slavery but don't know why." (This sentence, more or less, had to be in this relatively short read at least four times.)
The experience of the white slave owners was given a LOT of attention, although not as accurately as they should be. They were made out to be "kind" people who believed other humans were no better than livestock, and the late Samuel Maddox was guilty of "infidelity" with a slave woman, also known as rape.
I don't really care what accolades John Ford has won in his time as a reporter if he can't do honest and proper justice to the figures whose story he has decided to tell.
I would love to read a telling of this story by someone who can put more effort into the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of the actual black historical figures, and not waste so much space defending their white counterparts who "just never felt right about slavery but don't know why." (This sentence, more or less, had to be in this relatively short read at least four times.)
The experience of the white slave owners was given a LOT of attention, although not as accurately as they should be. They were made out to be "kind" people who believed other humans were no better than livestock, and the late Samuel Maddox was guilty of "infidelity" with a slave woman, also known as rape.
I don't really care what accolades John Ford has won in his time as a reporter if he can't do honest and proper justice to the figures whose story he has decided to tell.