Unlikely Heroes: Searching for Home in America

Warren depicts the barbarism of slavery and the chaos of war in this historical epic.

William, an enslaved man, lives with his wife, Harriet, and children, Hector and Margaret, on the South Carolina plantation of John Higgins in the late 1850s. Higgins is a cruel man who considers it his right to rape an enslaved teenaged girl and brutalize others—especially William, within whom he senses a freedom-loving spirit. William’s mild backtalk provokes Higgins to flog him nearly to death and sell him off, after which Higgins moves his household down to Florida in search of better land. William embarks on a series of adventures before and during the Civil War: He’s rescued from slavery by members of the Underground Railroad and helps free other slaves, he’s captured and re-enslaved, and he joins a regiment of Black soldiers in the Union Army. Alternating chapters follow William’s and Higgins’ families in Florida. The war’s end brings freedom to Blacks but also new forms of racial oppression—and it brings William to Florida, looking for his family and for revenge on Higgins. Warren paints a rich, nuanced portrait of plantation life and the demented psychology of slavery; enslavers fear that any display of humanity or respect will undermine their power and the enslaved endure constant fear, arbitrary violence, and heartbreaking separation from loved ones, burying their rage beneath masks of passive servility. The author conveys all of this in searing, muscular prose: “‘Don’t you ever defy me! Don’t you ever walk towards me like you are my equal.’ Harriet’s body shuddered each time the whip cut into William’s back. Margaret, her face buried in her mother’s dress, covered her ears in a futile attempt to shut out the mutilation of her father.”) The result is a harrowing depiction of bondage that’s both chilling and hopeful.

A gripping saga of slavery’s viciousness and one man’s dogged resistance to it.