As they grow up and have to make choices, the decisions are quite heart rendering and makes for a good novel. He uses various characters to let this all play out, especially the children since they can "pass" for white. Webb seems to embrace white middle class values and culture, as the key to success for African-Americans and it feels like he is pursuing the thought of "if Blacks acted more like whites, they wouldn't have any problems." But there are other times that it is clear that one must be comfortable in their own skin and maintain a moral and ethical firmness. Hmmm? The wife desperately wants to escape the South and so they move to Philadelphia and experience all kinds of racist horror and discrimination.Īt times Mr. They live openly as a couple in Georgia and apparently this is accepted and ok in 1857 GA. The Garies consist of a white man, his slave "wife" and their two children. Frank Webb gives us a look at what life would have been like for free Blacks in the North. It is a novel centered in Philadelphia, PA in the 1850's. To have dealt with racism in the North, in the manner that Frank Webb does is startling. The first thing that strikes me is the year of publication.
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