I read this historical fiction novel during Black History Month and during a trip to Philadelphia. It was an enlightening novel about free Blacks living in Philadelphia but still dealing with racism. Seeing some of the places mentioned in the novel while I was in the city really brought the story to life. Even in the North, African Americans were not treated equally.
Ashton Lattimore's novel All We Were Promised, which she wrote during National Novel Writing Month, follows three characters. Nell was born free to a well-off Black Philadelphian family. She's part of women's anti-slavery groups but feels they could be doing more to help enslaved people. Charlotte works as a housemaid for a white man. Except, he's not a white man. He's her father who is passing as white. The two of them ran away from their masters in Maryland and settled in Philadelphia. And Evie is a slave from Charlotte's former plantation. Evie arrives in Philadelphia to accompany her mistress as she searches for a new husband. But Evie doesn't want to return to Maryland or Virginia, where her mistress is going to relocate with her new beau. So after a chance encounter with Charlotte, Evie plans to run away.
Can you imagine living in a city where you're free but treated with contempt from your fellow citizens? Where your place of refuge is burned to the ground? Where you could be kidnapped off the street at any moment and be sent South to become a slave? These questions and more make this novel a great book club read.
All We Were Promised is published by Ballantine Books and will be available to purchase April 2, 2024 (tomorrow!). I received a free e-ARC from the publisher.
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