Tracking slavery
Cora is underfed, worked hard, abused and beyond tough. When her mother runs away from the Georgia plantation where they are slaves, Cora becomes bitter that she was left behind. Now she is the daughter of a runaway who escaped and never came back, which makes her a target for overseers and fellow slaves.
If an escaped slave is caught, the penalty is a slow, horrible death. But one night, Cora follows her mother and slips away with fellow slave Cesar to neighbouring South Carolina.
She changes her name and becomes a servant, earning tiny wages for her work, but is free. But she doesn’t trust this life she’s created for herself because she is sure her master will have set a slave catcher on her trail. She explains the brand on her forehead as a scar from an old accident.
Her cruel life on the plantation leaves her terribly damaged. Cora has been a slave; there is no room in her life impractical emotion and she is thoroughly practical. It’s how she survives in a world, which betrays her again and again. Despite her fondness for Cesar, she cannot love him.
Her restless soul leads her from the relative safety and progressive ideas of South Carolina to the horrors of North Carolina.
New York- based author Colson Whitehead tells 15- year- old Cora’s stark tale in matter- of- fact prose. He graphically depicts the brutality of the so- called peculiar institution of slavery. A particularly disturbing scene depicts a horrific lynching amidst a carnival atmosphere.
The Underground Railroad was neither a railroad nor was it underground. But author Whitehead treats the term as literal, putting Cora and Cesar at stations waiting for trains to carry them on their journey. In reality it was a loose network of safe houses and people who risked their lives against the horror of slavery.
Cora’s tale isn’t an easy read but it will give you plenty to think about.