by Tiya Miles
First published 2015
Jinx, a historian exploring her tribe's complex racial past, arrives at the former Chief Vann House plantation in Georgia. She joins Ruth, whose mother built a cosmetic empire from her garden sanctuary, and Cheyenne, a Southern black debutante searching for meaningful personal history. The three women dig into the plantation's buried secrets, uncovering a world where Southern Creeks and Cherokees held slaves alongside scenes of both extreme cruelty and extraordinary compassion. Their investigation centers on Mary Ann Battis, a young woman who may have burned down the Moravian mission in the early 1800s before vanishing from tribal records entirely. As the women piece together fragments of this little-known chapter of American slavery, they confront uncomfortable truths about their own heritage. Their discoveries force each to reconcile the conflicts in her present life while connecting with the resilient spirits who came before them.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, uncovering-the-past
Setting: Chief Vann House, Georgia, Moravian Mission
Period: Early 1800s
256 pages · Hardcover · Blair
Content warnings: racism, slavery