All Men are Created Equal

By: Carolyn Maxwell

In his latest book, Mr. Cabrera continues to have women as the strongest characters. As I was reading this book, it was as if Mr. Cabrera had transported himself back in time when the colonists were fighting for independence from England during the Revolutionary War.

Every character in the book (male, female, all ages, and all ethnicities) were described so vividly, it was as if Mr. Cabrera had metaphorically lived through each of them. This was a period when slavemasters routinely forced themselves on female slaves which produced children. Many of the wives of those slavemasters knew this to be true.

One of these wives vehemently unleashed her anger on the female slave and one of the two children (a female that came of her husband’s infidelity). The situation became worse when the slave and that child were both assigned to work in the master’s house. Their constant presence was a daily reminder to the slavemaster’s wife of her husband’s infidelity. The slavemaster and his wife had a daughter who was beautiful, but it was the female child from the slave who outshone that child in beauty. There was no denying this, and even the slavemaster’s wife, to her disdain had to acknowledge this.

The female slave had instilled in her children, especially her daughter how important it was to learn how to read. She would have access to the books in the library at the main house and was able to obtain one of these books to give to her young daughter. She warned her daughter to guard this book carefully and don’t let anyone know she had it.

At the end of the day, when they would return to the slave quarters, the child would pull out that book from underneath the mattress. She slowly start reading the words to her mother who was very proud of her daughter’s ability to form those words.

The first child of that slave was a male. He had the fortune to be able to work in the blacksmith shop that was on the plantation. This was a coveted position because it enabled him not to have to toil in the fields under the adverse weather conditions from the seasons.

The slavemaster was fair to the slaves under him, but unfortunately, the foreman who made sure the slaves did not slack off when working the fields was cruel and heartless. Events took a turn for the worse when the slavemaster died unexpectedly. The slave whom he had two children with, who unfortunately had a great love for him died a few hours later from a broken heart.

Much to the disdain of the slavemaster’s widow, the two children from his liaisons were willed to another plantation owner. This turned out to be a blessing.

The most interesting aspect of the book is that the most educated characters turned out to be the ones who were denied an education. The women that you least expected turned out to be the most hard-nosed and effective leaders, where even the men had to recognize their strengths.

The one character who wielded a lot of power was an older slave who was respected by all, and they knew not to cross her. She was feared, but for all the right reasons.

This book took us to two different worlds: Virginia and then to France where those citizens were starting their own revolution. There’s a conflict among slaves from America who were brought over to France to serve their masters. Those slaves  knew that they can have freedom in France.

The main character also had a choice to make as to whether she could have freedom in France or return to America to help obtain freedom for others.

I have purposely left out a lot of facts to not spoil the story. You must read the book to find out the hard choice she had to make. There are a lot of intertwining characters and there is one which I found no purpose for having in the book. There was also another child in the book which I thought that character was overdone.

In the past, when I reviewed any of Mr. Cabrera’s books, I always told him that he should have a continuation of some of the female characters, perhaps exploring how they got to be the way they were. In this book, there is no need because he flushed out the characters so well.