lonestarwords 's review for:

Trouble The Water by Rebecca Dwight Bruff

3.0

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I would learn to read, and I would learn to write, and I would learn to cipher numbers, and I would learn to be a man, a real man, a man who would come and go as he pleased, a man who had a little money in his pocket, a man who had some say in his world.
Trouble the Water
Rebecca Dwight Bruff
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Trouble the Water is the story of Robert Smalls (known as "Trouble") who spent much of his life in slavery but was able to free himself during the Civil War in an incredible act of bravery aboard a confederate warship.
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This book is a work of historical/biographical fiction. It is incredibly dense with Civil War history in and around Beaufort and Charleston, SC. I loved the author's descriptions of the lowcountry while also adeptly weaving in the dark scar of slavery. The life of Robert Smalls, as far as I know, has never been written about, much less celebrated and Rececca Bruff moved from Texas to South Carolina to research his life and write his story. I found that the most remarkable part of this reading experience and kept coming back to it as I worked my way through the book -- that someone cared so deeply about telling this man's story that she upended her life to make it happen. What she produced is both readable and important and highly recommended for lovers of American history.

Thank you to the author for a gifted copy of the book!