With the week off, I'm working hard to get my history novel formatted for publication. It took me 3 years to write and 6 years of off and on research. It's about Moses Grandy, a slave who lived in this area in the early 1800's. In 1843, The Life of Moses Grandy was published - a narrative of his life in his "own" words. Since he narrated it to an abolitionist, it's hearsay evidence, I suppose. I've found plenty of evidence that his story is true, but even the truth can be "biased." I came across his story while researching the swamp for another novel and was surprised to learn none of my teacher friends, including those who are very much into black history month, had ever heard of him. Anyway the man's story is so fascinating I wanted the world to take notice of him. As it is, he's a very minor footnote in African American history.
Moses was born ca. 1888 in Camden County, N.C. His original master, William Grandy, died and left this slave to his son James, who was the same age as Moses (The two had been playmates.) Since James was a minor, and considered unfit to manage slaves, the state stepped in and put Moses out for hire by the year until James came of age. Moses had several "hired" masters, some cruel, some kind. When he went back to his master, an agreement was made for Moses to buy his freedom by hiring himself out. The price was $600.
To make a long story (135,000 words in my book) short, Moses was twice swindled out of his money and nearly lost it a third time. His wife was sold into slavery and he never saw her again. Finally, Moses obtained his freedom and went north, where he worked to make enough money to buy his family out of freedom.
I decided to use his story by fictionalizing it and using it to chronicle the history of the area. This was right after the constitution was signed and "every man was created equal," supposedly. So how did the practice of slavery continue? It's called social pressure. Culture, politics, religion, economics and other forces came into play. That's what the book is really about. I could have fictionalized his story without any research, if I just wanted to have a story to write.
I entered the novel "...and Remember that I Am a Man." in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest. At first it got rave reviews. But in the semi-finals, it got slammed. It was called appropriative and borderline plagiaristic and I was basically accused of writing the novel without any right to do so. Even though every source I used was named and all of it was in the public domain. Nothing was said about whether the novel or the writing was good or bad, just that I should not have "appropriated" Moses' story. The reviewer must have not read the final page, where I explained my goals pertaining to the novel.
I guess I'd better get used to it. My novel "The Prisoners of Gender," dealt with sexual issues by swapping the genders of two people who must count on each other and how they deal with their new personae. I had no idea it would happen, but the blurb for the book got posted on a transgender website. I was called a hack and someone else told me I should have written about cartesian dualism and other psychiatric buzzwords. I guess they thought I was writing about "transgender" issues.
Okay, now I'll get back to my formatting. The text is finished, time to work on the cover.
Just a note: A Chesapeake librarian is also blogging about history of the area. Betsy Fowler. I don't know her, but her blog is interesting. http://offtheshelf-betsy.blogspot.com/
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