Angels Make Their Hope Here
I began work on my third novel in earnest as soon as I saw the photograph. She was unidentified when I first encountered her. She was so beautiful. More than beautiful, her gaze was compelling. She expressed a forthright quality that I hadn’t seen before in a photograph of this vintage, a photograph of someone like her. Then there were so many things that were emblematic of the period: her wasp waist, her pretty, sparkling earrings, her dress, her demeanor, her hair/hairstyle --- Wow, I loved her hairdo.
She became the inspirational image that helped to guide my work on Angels Make Their Hope Here. She became the self-emancipated young woman at the heart of my story.
ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE is set in an imagined community in a mountainous area roughly north and west of Paterson, New Jersey in the 19th century. Russell’s Knob is a hidden, secretive place settled by people who might be described today as bi-racial or tri-racial. The inhabitants describe themselves as runaways and stay-aways. Russell’s Knob maintains a tradition of harboring fugitives from enslavement and is home to the legendary Underground Railroad conductor, Duncan Smoot. The residents of Russell’s Knob are people who reject the limiting definitions of racial identity and character of 19th century, mid-Atlantic, North America and live outside of the “white” towns. They are spoken of derisively as “amalgamators” and “race mixers” though their true history is as complex as is the history of settlement in the region.
Russell's Knob is not paradise. But by 1863 this New Jersey highlands settlement is home to a diverse population of blacks and whites and reds who have intermarried and lived in relative harmony for generations. It is a haven for Dossie Bird, who has escaped north along the Underground Railroad and now feels the embrace of the Smoot family: Duncan (so much older than Dossie; could he expect her to be his helpmeet?), his reticent sister, his exuberant nephews, and a circle of friends that includes the local spirit woman, Noelle. Tentatively, Dossie begins to lay down roots-until an act of violence propels her away from Russell's Knob and eventually into the mayhem of New York City's mean streets.
Book Review: 'Angels Make Their Hope Here' - NPR
https://www.npr.org › 2014/07/22 › book-review-angels-...
Jul 22, 2014 — Alan Cheuse reviews Angels Make Their Hope Here