It’s a tremendous leap to understand the justification of ruling the lives of people and making decisions that tore families apart. The book colourfully explores the attitudes and mindset of slave owners in Virginia in the 19th century. It’s hard to imagine sharing such an intimate bond with another woman’s child by being a wet nurse and at the same time being a slave, a human with no rights. This is definitely one of those books that reels you in from the first page and keeps you invested right until the end. Yellow Crocus offers moving proof of how the greatest social change often blooms forth from small personal acts of love. Lisbeth’s powerful bond with Mattie makes her loss of innocence in the face of society’s ugly secrets all the more heartbreaking, and yet it is the courage she learns from her stand in mother that enables Lisbeth to blaze a new path for herself. This compelling historical novel chronicles young Lisbeth Wainwright’s coming-of-age during one of the most difficult chapters of American history. Just twenty-one years old, she is forced to choose between what is socially acceptable and what is right, a decision that will change her life forever. When, on the threshold of her society wedding to debonair Edward Cunningham, Lisbeth bears witness to a shockingly brutal act, the final vestiges of her naiveté crumble around her. She accepts her parents’ assertion that their slaves depend upon them for guidance and protection, yet that notion becomes more and more difficult to believe as she gains awareness of the inequality of life in the big house versus the slave quarters. Still she retains her connection to Mattie, befriending Samuel and drifting comfortably between the two worlds. Growing up under Mattie’s tender care, little Lisbeth adopts the woman’s deep-seated faith in God, her love of music and black-eyed peas, and the tradition of hunting for yellow crocuses in the early days of spring.Īs the years pass, Lisbeth is drawn slowly back into her white parents’ world and begins to learn the ins and outs of life for a high-born young lady. But Mattie is a slave, with no say in the matter, and so she devotes herself to her master’s daughter, though she longs to be raising her own child. For a field hand like Mattie, her transfer to the big house is supposed to be considered an honor-except that the move tears Mattie away from her beloved grandfather and her infant son, Samuel. Seconds later, she is delivered into the arms of her black wet nurse, Mattie.

In 1837, Lisbeth Wainwright is born to the white mistress of a sprawling Virginia plantation.

The yellow crocus book review