54.
Author(s): Jessica McCann
Title: All Different Kinds of Free
Publication: Kindle, free
Pages:
Genre: Fiction
Acquisition:
Date Completed: July 15, 2011
Rating: ****

There exists even today a cultural divide along the East coast of the United States; an imaginary line continues to mark people as being either "Northern" or "Southern," with special modifiers reserved for those from the "Deep South." As a Marylander, I never really felt like a "Southerner," although our state was once a slave-holding state, and we are in fact below the Mason-Dixon line. However, evidence of Maryland's slaveholding past is still visible; there remain plaques and memorials in downtown Annapolis, where slaves were once brought by boat to American soil, and signs along highways will remind travelers of the names of former plantations, and mark the birth places of important abolitionist figures.

Still, to read a novel of American slavery that is set (at least partially) in such an intimately familiar location is a bit surreal.

Jessica McCann's All Different Kinds of Free tells the story of Margaret Morgan, a former Maryland resident who is kidnapped from her home in Pennsylvania along with her children, and sold into slavery. The "bounty hunter" responsible for her bondage is brought to trial for his actions, and the subsequent Supreme Court trial is recognized as one of the motivating events for the Civil war. Unfortunately, little is known of the poor woman whose life is literally stolen by Prigg the bounty hunter, and her personal consequences are not marked as significant in history books. McCann embraces this shadowy figure and gives her not only a life but a voice, and it is her story that is the focus of this 2011 novel.

While All Different Kinds of Free contains many of the same elements of the endless slave narratives we now have access to (both fictional and nonfiction), McCann's story is intriguing for her protagonist - a woman who, the readers believe - is never a slave until someone accuses her of running. Her story is one of an adult woman forced into this hideous institution, and shows how someone who is well and truly free can adjust (temporarily) and fight for what she has lost. i found the narrative to be both intriguing and heartbreaking, and would certainly recommend it.