Discovering the Women of Cane River
"Writing Cane River affected me actually more than I suspected it would. The day that I got the Bill of Sale that displayed, visibly, that my great-great- great-great-grandmother Elisabeth was sold in 1850 for $800 was really an amazing experience in many ways. I was first and foremost elated. It proved that she existed categorically...and very quickly, I went from elation to absolute dejection."

"Along the left-hand side of this page were the slaves' names, and three of them were three generations of my family. And then I had to come to grips with the fact that on the right-hand side of that Bill of Sale were the people that had bought them and these were my ancestors as well."

"This is not a book about slavery. This is a story about mothers and daughters. This is a story about relationships. You don't have to be a Southerner. You don't have to be African-American. You don't have to be a woman to enjoy it."

Meet the women of Cane River.