Blog Tour Review: A More Perfect Union by Tammye Huf

Today I am thrilled to be taking my turn on the Blog Tour for A More Perfect Union by Tammye Huf, published by Myriad Editions . Thank you to Emma Dowson for my gifted copy and blog tour invite.

It’s 1848. In Ireland the potato famine has the country in it’s grip and families are being ripped apart. The combination of hunger, economic ruin and unjust British Rule is driving more and more Irish families to seek a life across the Atlantic.

When Henry O’Toole arrives in New York, it seems that anti- Irish feeling is as rife here as in the land he left. But when a violent twist of fate and a change of name pushes him in a different direction he finds himself in Virginia and a world he never knew existed. In amongst the booming cotton plantations of the South, Henry encounters the horror of slavery for the first time.

Establishing regular work on the Jubilee Plantation Henry falls deeply in love with Sarah, a house slave. Not long sold to this establishment, Sarah is mourning the loss of her family. The situation seems hopeless, their union is not only considered a moral abomination but also illegal.

And so begins a tale of developing feeling, of trying to establish a union when all the world is against you, and the inequalities within the relationship threaten to destroy it at every level. For Henry believes that he has known what it is like to live under unjust rule. He tries to compare his experiences back in Ireland, working for British landowners, to Sarah’s situation. And it is not long before he sees that comparison comes up short. For Sarah being a slave mean that every part of her life is controlled. What she eats, who she talks to, where she goes, who she marries. Despite his love and empathy Henry can never truly understand this.

Yet he is determined to try, and equally as determined to get Sarah away from the life she lives and make her a free woman, and his wife.

Whilst Sarah and Henry are at the heart of this story, this is a novel populated with vivid characters, all with their own unique stories to tell and all add a different dimension to the tale of this plantation and it’s place in history. There is Maple, cook and house slave, gifted to Miss Martha on the occasion of her marriage, and forced to leave her family behind. Each day she is tormented by the fear of what is happening to her mother and daughter; both left at the mercy of Master Jeremiah. Bessie, the old cook and childhood nurse of Master Johnson, now widowed and blind, who is set free in a perceived gesture of kindness but cannot comprehend life beyond the plantation walls and her family. Red, young and with fire in his belly, refusing to accept his lot and silently looking for a way to escape.

The plantation owner, Master Johnson, believes himself to be progressive and just. He claims his slaves are treated well, and while it is true he spares the lash more than most of his society, he still sees his slaves as no more than his property. The concern he has for their treatment stems from a desire to pacify the growing anti-slavery movement of the North rather than genuine concern for their welfare.

Here is a detailed, complex and beautifully drawn portrayal of a relationship tied down with complexities and opposed from all sides. Each individual story, each character, each carefully placed word within this web of beautiful prose, provides strength to it’s authenticity and power. It is a story of the greatest adversity and the struggle of love in the darkest of times.

It has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to have had the chance to read this book, and to add my voice to it’s supporting blog tour. Tammye Huf, your book is a triumph and I wish it every success as it makes it’s way out into the world.

And there is more…

For more reviews and reactions to A More Perfect Union check out the blog tour below…