Review: Liked the Novel a Lot Despite Minor Problems
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 25, 2014
The Price of Freedom – 5Richard Fairfax agrees with his father’s suggestion to marry a neighbor’s daughter and take over the South Carolina plantation. He doesn’t think love is for him, and at least he’ll get an estate in the deal. He decides to visit his aunt’s husband’s sugar cane plantation in Barbados to learn how to operate a plantation and oversee slaves. There he meets Deborah, a beautiful slave and his uncle’s daughter by a half white slave. She’s no blood relation to Richard, and he finds himself wanting her, even though his uncle tells him she’s off limits. He comes up with a plan, but will it work or will he find his heart held captive?I found a lot of minor problems. There was some head hopping and all-knowing comments like, “She had no idea how much more hers was about to change because of him.” It was not against the law to teach a slave to read in South Carolina until 1740, and this was set in the 1690’s. Sarah could not have made all the new clothes for the house slaves in the two or three weeks before the party, because it would have taken close to a week to make one by hand sewing, and Sarah had other work to do, too. The novel was too detailed on what happened to the slaves, including things like when Deborah was raped by William, her half-brother. All this may have been pretty historically accurate, but I thought there was too much lust and details for a Christian novel. However, the characters were interesting and so was the story. Richard gradually changes his views, attitudes, and values, and he caused others to change, too. I ended up liking the book a lot, despite the problems.