Perseverance is Triumph: Lalita Tademy

Lalita Tademy used to have a high-powered job at Sun Microsystems before delving into her genealogy, leading to three books (so far) imagining her family's history. The  results are historical novels that tell of little-known parts of the American narrative, which we forget to our peril. All three family sagas are moving, atmospheric, and accurate down to the smallest detail.

Cane River is the first book, starting during slavery and following its characters well into the 20th century. Set in Louisiana, it is the story of maintaining family and the destructiveness of colorism. Elisabeth is sold from Virginia into a French family and holds high hopes for her daughter, Suzette. Suzette is raped by a planter and the result is Philomene, who becomes a mistress to a rich white man. This man gives her land with the ending of slavery, but it is a battle to hold onto it. Philomene's daughter, Emily, also gets involved with a white man, but he marries a white woman to avoid ostracism and abandons Emily and her son, T.O. T.O. brings the story to a close when he marries a dark-skinned woman and reclaims his heritage. This book was a selection for Oprah's Book Club.

Red River follows another strand of Tademy's family, this time from Colfax, Louisiana. The massacre at Colfax, where a white mob slaughtered 150 freedmen who were guarding the democratically-elected sheriff, was the bloodiest incident of during Reconstruction and how Tademy starts her book. The Tademy and Smith families are intertwined, trying to improve their lot and that of their community, despite white supremacy and the cruelties of fate. Unlike her previous book, Tademy focuses more on the men in this one, with descriptions of backbreaking farm work and the odiousness of Jim Crow.

The latest from this author is Citizens Creek. Cow Tom rises from lowly cowherd slave to chief of the Creek tribe freedmen, eventually going to Washington to enforce a treaty. Along the way, he and his family suffer the depredations of war and those who would deny them their rights. Cow Tom is especially close to his granddaughter, Rose, who picks up the story for the last third of the book. Cow Tom entrusts her with his story, and encourages her to look beyond the family ranch for her life. Rose eventually gets a ranch and family of her own, some of whose members break her heart. This story takes place mostly in Oklahoma (Indian Country), but also in Alabama and Florida. I was very fuzzy on the relations between Native Americans and African Americansbefore I read this book, and this novel shows how complicated things were.

While focusing mostly on African Americans, these books are of interest to all, and not just because African American history is American history. Tademy's novels show the values of family, land and perseverance. We could all use a few lessons in them.