The Dark Side of Civil

Carla Ramsey Weeks, author of , revisits the antebellum era and the slaveholding Barret family in this new historical saga. In , Jude, both the son and the slave of Frederick Barret, fights the constraints of his oppression and longs for a life none of them thinks possible until his mother Minda is summoned to the house of abolitionist Bette Stiles, once a good friend to the master's deceased wife. Their relationship offers opportunities and hope if they can keep their secrets from Frederick, a man determined to control the lives of his white children as well as his slaves. The is a realistic, intimate experience and a culmination of the story begun in Readers will once again enter the lives of Frederick, his children Robart, Fredie, Mattie, Ella, and Maxie, but goes deep into the lives of the household slaves. Minda's family manages periods of happiness, hope, and normalcy in an era that denied them humanity. Gritty, captivating, humorous, and historically accurate, is a story readers will not easily forget.