The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson

I'm not generally drawn to Civil War fiction or, in particular, slave narratives. However, in the past couple of years I've read several and have been pleased with them all. There was Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez; Wash by Margaret Wrinkle; Come August, Come Freedom by Gigi Amateau. All were very well done. Now I've read The Life and times of Persimmon Wilson by Nancy Peacock, which is different from the others but is also excellent.

Persy, as he is known, is sold by his owner's estate in Virginia to a cane plantation in Louisiana. There, he is mistreated by “Master” Joseph Wilson, but also manages to fall in love with Chloe, a light-skinned house slave who Master takes as his “fancy.” But the book begins as Persy is waiting to be hanged for killing Master Wilson and Persy, who learned to read and write as a child, asks for pencil and paper so that he can write down his story. The rest of the book is that story—from abuse on the plantation, trysts with Chloe, Master Wilson's move to Texas as a means to evade the Yankees, emancipation, capture by a band of Comanche, and so on. It's all very exciting stuff as Persy attempts to reunite with Chloe.

Black, white, and Indian, this book is filled with memorable characters. Persy himself, whom we meet as a boy of 17, is the centerpiece of the book, and it's not hard to sympathize with his plight. Master Wilson, who is almost comical in his pretense of benevolence, is an excellent antagonist, even if he is something of a villainous stereotype. And Chloe, the beautiful, uneducated house slave who is repeatedly raped by Wilson, completes the triangle.
While some of the story is familiar—slavery is a vile institution and that is amply demonstrated by the working conditions, the whippings, the inhuman treatment—there are some new elements here. For one, Chloe is so light-skinned that she can be mistaken for being white, which adds a complexity as the book reaches its climax. For another, Persy's capture and assimilation into the Comanche highlights the genocide perpetrated against the American Indians during this period. Don't expect to come away from this book feeling good about 19th Century white America, Confederate or Yankee either one.

This is a very well written, compelling (and exciting!) story of one man's life before and after the Civil War, but it's more than that as well.