Eleanor Shearer

This is the heartbreaking story of Rachel, a slave on a sugar cane plantation in Barbados in 1864 when the Emancipation Act is decreed; however, the slaves are held for another six years as apprentices and runaways will still be captured and punished. Determined to find the children that have been taken from her and probably sold at auction, she makes the decision to run in the dead of night.

Due to the assistance of generous strangers, Rachel escapes and eventually finds her daughter, Mary Grace, in the employ of kind people. The two of them begin a dangerous journey by ship to find her other missing children. She is undaunted by the perils that await as she seeks her other children. This is a testament to her strength, courage and unrelenting resolve to reunite with those who have so cruelly been taken from her.… (meer)

Haunting and painfully beautiful. Hope hurts. A mother flees the plantation where she is still essentially enslaved despite slavery legally "ending" in the Caribbean. She is in search of her children who were torn from her over the years, having been sold to other enslavers. She had 11 children in all, but only five lived long enough to be sold away from her. This is an amazing tale of a mother's journey to find her children and make sure they know her love. It is about how everyone finds freedom a little differently, and about the brutal hope that lives on if you can make peace with the pain that comes with it.… (meer)