River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer (2023 fiction)

Rachel is a slave on a plantation in Barbados in the 1830’s. When Britain passed the Emancipation Act of 1834, affecting the plantation owners in Barbados, said owners advised the slaves they were emancipated but would instead become apprentices for a period of six years. Therefore, their position didn’t change. So Rachel runs. Her five children had years ago been sold away from Providence Plantation. She desperately wants to find them and undertakes a journey from Barbados to British Guiana to Trinidad, becoming acquainted with many friends and a few foes on her quest. I found this book to be extremely interesting because I knew very little about Caribbean history. I also found it ultimately to be extremely uplifting.

Reviewed by Ginger Russell