First published 2018
Nate Shaw grew up knowing bondage. His father lived as a slave, and Shaw himself faced only slightly better conditions. By age nine, he picked cotton for thirty-five cents per hour. The work was hard, but Shaw endured it with quiet determination. At forty-seven, he reached his breaking point. White deputies arrived to seize his neighbor's harvest, and Shaw refused to stand aside. He confronted the crowd directly, knowing the consequences. His act of defiance sent him to prison for twelve years. Now eighty-four, Shaw recounts his life in his own words. He calls himself an "over-average" man, but his story reveals something deeper. Shaw lived through massive changes in the South and helped create some of those changes himself. His plain speech carries the weight of a life spent fighting small battles that added up to something larger.
Genres: 20th-century, biography-memoir, african-american-historical-fiction, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: overcoming-adversity, personal-journey
Setting: American South
Period: 20th Century
608 pages · Paperback · Vintage
Content warnings: slavery, violence