Scan barcode
A review by whodatro
Carolina Built by Kianna Alexander
3.0
This is the Disney version of the story of a freed slave, Josephine Leary, who was able to amass an impressive commercial real estate porfolio after emancipation and Reconstruction.
Mrs Leary and her husband are barbers and newly married when they arrived to Edenton with her mother, grandmother and brother. She and her husband are mixed race, but he is an Octoroon, therefore he has the ability to pass for white, which he often does. Her first real estate negotiation is the lease of their barbershop. She later goes on to have 2 daughters and eventually buys their family home, barbershop, and 4 or 6 other properties.
I had never heard of her, but Josephine Leary is real. This book, however, is a work of fiction. A black woman is able to buy land and buildings from white men and get a mortgage loan from the bank without incident. She buys the commercial property in her own name, which is a source of tension in her marriage, because she never let's the husband forget it's hers and her money that bought it. There is only one racist incident in the book and it happened during a Juneteeth picnic at their church.
Honestly is was a nice escape to not have to read or hear about any trauma, but we know Mrs. Leary's experiences weren't a fairy tale. There was also some usage of modern vocabulary, though set in the late 1800s
Mrs Leary and her husband are barbers and newly married when they arrived to Edenton with her mother, grandmother and brother. She and her husband are mixed race, but he is an Octoroon, therefore he has the ability to pass for white, which he often does. Her first real estate negotiation is the lease of their barbershop. She later goes on to have 2 daughters and eventually buys their family home, barbershop, and 4 or 6 other properties.
I had never heard of her, but Josephine Leary is real. This book, however, is a work of fiction. A black woman is able to buy land and buildings from white men and get a mortgage loan from the bank without incident. She buys the commercial property in her own name, which is a source of tension in her marriage, because she never let's the husband forget it's hers and her money that bought it. There is only one racist incident in the book and it happened during a Juneteeth picnic at their church.
Honestly is was a nice escape to not have to read or hear about any trauma, but we know Mrs. Leary's experiences weren't a fairy tale. There was also some usage of modern vocabulary, though set in the late 1800s