BookLife Review: River Sing Me Home, by Eleanor Shearer
historical novel, Caribbean, Barbados, Guyana, enslaved people, fragmented families, emancipation, reunion, freedom
River Sing Me Home is a beautifully written and heart-wrenching historical novel set in the Caribbean in the period after England abolished slavery and its colonies were slow to emancipate enslaved people. Rachel, an enslaved woman, learns of the emancipation law that is to govern British-ruled Barbados. She defies her slaveowner’s proclamation that a six-year “apprenticeship” will ensue for “his” formerly enslaved people. Rachel runs. Over the course of her forty years of enslavement, she has been violently separated from five of her children (and lost others to childhood illnesses). Her mission is to find her surviving children.
She first flees on foot and stumbles upon a community of former slaves on the island. There, she finds guidance and help from the community’s matriarch. Together they walk to one of island’s main cities where she is reunited with one of her daughters, Mary Grace. Mary Grace is employed by a black couple, the Armstrongs, who own and operate a dressmaking shop. Sympathetic to Rachel’s plight, they employ her. She locates her eldest son who suffered a tragedy. The Armstrongs fund Rachel and Mary Grace’s journey to British Guiana (known as Guyana since its independence from Britain in 1966), where some of her other children are rumored to have been sent.
Rachel’s drive to reunite with her children, her decades-long life as an enslaved woman, and her determination to live freely give Rachel the strength and fortitude to endure both heartbreak and unimaginable hardship. Rachel, Mary Grace and their travel companions cover great distances on foot and by canoe, enduring hunger and hardship. Along the way, Rachel develops a profound appreciation for the natural environment, the forests and woods, the flora and fauna, the sun and rain, and the river. In nature she finds freedom and profound healing.
Shearer’s writing also digs deeply to explore the imagined landscape of Rachel’s emotions as a formerly enslaved woman, a grieving mother, a woman experiencing freedom for the first time in her life, and her deep gratitude for all she encounters. Author Eleanor Shearer’s ability to convey the depth and nuances of these gigantic emotions on a human scale is impressive. Shearer also develops secondary characters fully with the slightest touch and great skill.
The journey through Barbados and Guyana is riveting. It is an adventure with multiple obstacles and challenges and a series of unknown outcomes, both joyous and heart-breaking.