Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America

by W. Caleb McDaniel Narrated by Paul Heitsch

Overview

The unforgettable saga of one enslaved woman's fight for justice-and reparations

Born into slavery, Henrietta Wood was taken to Cincinnati and legally freed in 1848. In 1853, a Kentucky deputy sheriff named Zebulon Ward colluded with Wood's employer, abducted her, and sold her back into bondage. She remained enslaved throughout the Civil War, giving birth to a son in Mississippi and never forgetting who had put her in this position. By 1869, Wood had obtained her freedom for a second time and returned to Cincinnati, where she sued Ward for damages in 1870. Astonishingly, after eight years of litigation, Wood won her case: in 1878, a Federal jury awarded her $2,500. More important than the amount, though the largest ever awarded by an American court in restitution for slavery, was the fact that any money was awarded at all.

McDaniel's book is an epic tale of a black woman who survived slavery twice and who achieved more than merely a moral victory over one of her oppressors. Above all, Sweet Taste of Liberty is a portrait of an extraordinary individual as well as a searing reminder of the lessons of her story, which establish beyond question the connections between slavery and the prison system that rose in its place.

Editorial Reviews

JULY 2020 - AudioFile

With a historian’s dispassionate clarity and a bit of irony, narrator Paul Heitsch, delivers the singular story of Henrietta Wood, a free Black woman who was living and working in Cincinnati in 1853 when she was kidnapped, taken south, and sold “down the river” to a Mississippi plantation owner. Wood went on to return home after the Civil War, regain her freedom, and raise a son. She also successfully sued the white man who sold her 20 years earlier for damages, the only formerly enslaved person ever to do so. Although it seems a missed opportunity not to have cast a Black narrator, this Pulitzer Prize-winning history provides a comprehensive, multifaceted overview of how slavery worked in the United States and is an absolute must-listen for our times. B.P. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

07/08/2019

In this gripping study, Rice University historian McDaniel recounts the painful but triumphant story of one enslaved woman’s long fight for justice. Henrietta Wood, born into bondage, was freed by her owner in 1848. Seven years later, she was kidnapped and reenslaved by Kentucky horse breeder Zebulon Ward, and did not regain her freedom until the end of the Civil War. Wood was determined to gain compensation for her additional years of servitude and for the fact that her son Arthur had been born into slavery, and sued Ward in 1868. Nearly a decade later, Wood was victorious; although the $2,500 in damages the court awarded her were far less than she had requested, the funds, “the largest known ever awarded by a U.S. court in restitution for slavery,” helped to establish Arthur as a lawyer in Chicago. The two extensive interviews Wood gave to reporters during her lawsuit illuminate her remarkable life. Nearly a century after Wood’s lawsuit, McDaniel recounts, Martin Luther King warned his supporters that the civil rights project would remain incomplete until African-Americans gained economic as well as political equality, and that any such improvements must be “demanded by the oppressed.” McDaniel tells this story engrossingly and accessibly. This is a valuable contribution to Reconstruction history with clear relevance to current debates about reparations for slavery. Photos. (Sept.)

From the Publisher

"The reader not only follows the fascinating narrative of a woman who lost her freedom, but also learns of the intricacies of slavery in a border state like Kentucky, the pain of separation from loved ones, and the ordeals of being sold "down the river," surviving on a large cotton plantation, and being an enslaved refugee in Texas during the Civil War... It is an enlightening account from the point of view of an enslaved woman about the arduous trip — and the subsequent years — that many enslaved people were forced to endure by their masters to avoid their being liberated by Union armies... [McDaniel] has turned these into a captivating account of this period, revealing how the legal and economic aspects of the institution of slavery interacted in very personal and human ways with those who were kept enslaved." — Angela Boswell, Professor of History at Henderson State University, Southwestern Historical Quarterly

"As a whole, Sweet Taste of Liberty is the fruit of excellent scholarship and a timely and significant addition to the field of U.S. racial history." — Ken Chujo, J.F. Oberlin University, Tokyo, The Journal of Southern History

"In this gripping study, Rice University historian McDaniel recounts the painful but triumphant story of one enslaved woman's long fight for justice... McDaniel tells this story engrossingly and accessibly. This is a valuable contribution to Reconstruction history with clear relevance to current debates about reparations for slavery."—Publishers Weekly

"Sweet Taste of Liberty is a masterpiece. Using an extraordinary archival discovery, McDaniel expertly weaves a compelling, fine-grained narrative of the extraordinary life of Henrietta Wood. . . . But this is not simply a biography. It also a work of profound analysis, layered with McDaniel's deep knowledge of slavery, emancipation, and the law. The book raises the most profound questions about slavery, reparations, and the debt that the United States owes to the people whose unfree labor constructed a great deal of that nation." — Gregory P. Downs, author of The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic

"As America grapples with reparations for slavery, Caleb McDaniel unearths the astounding story of a woman who survived bondage, twice, and fought for restitution against impossible odds. In lucid and vivid prose, he brings us a chilling, inspiring, and timely examination of both the necessity and complexity of redressing historical crimes." — Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic and Spying on the South

"Henrietta Wood's quest to be made whole by seeking reparations from the man who kidnapped and re-enslaved her is a heart-tugging page-turner. With fidelity to the historical record and insight into the emotions that run through it, Caleb McDaniel's Sweet Taste of Liberty tells how enslaved women lived along the jagged lines that divided house and field, city and countryside, North and South, and slavery and freedom. Her triumph is a tribute to one woman's persistence, courage, legal savvy, and an enduring devotion to family-its lessons for us are timeless." — Martha S. Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, Johns Hopkins University, author of Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America

"McDaniel renders an enthralling biography of a determined, resilient woman... A well-researched, well-told story that also contributes to the debate about reparations."
—Library Journal

"Sweet Taste of Liberty is a profound book that could not have been released at a better time... It is an account brimming with as much bittersweetness as it does hope."
—ZORA

"[A] superbly written chronicle . . . . rich with vivid personalities and unexpected turns."
—Wall Street Journal

"Through painstaking archival research, Bell and McDaniel have reconstructed their lives with such vivid detail, sensitivity, and riveting storytelling that you would think each of their figures left us whole autobiographies. For the simple act of recovering their stories, both books would be commendable. But what makes them essential reading is the larger questions they demand of us as readers: What exactly was the condition under which un-enslaved black people lived before emancipation—and what is it that they and their descendants are owed?"—The New Republic

"W. Caleb McDaniel tells a breathless tale with an ominously dark feel through many of its pages, because the monsters here were real. Yes, it's a complicated tale that races from north to south, but the righteous audacity that ultimately occurred in Ohio in 1870 makes it worthwhile, fist-pumping, and satisfying. Historians, of course, will want Sweet Taste of Liberty. Feminists shouldn't miss it. Folks with an opinion on reparations should find it. All of you will want to take it home."—Miami Times

"A deeply rich story... This beautifully written book is a must read."—Civil War Monitor

"Sweet Taste of Liberty uses the past to show how the open wounds of slavery still exist."—The Advocate

"Researchers, leisurely readers and those in the general public looking to be more informed about the history of slavery and reparations in this country, would be hard-pressed not to find this book compelling. It is a story that deserves to be heard and a conversation that needs to be had."—Bowling Green Daily News

"A book that single-handedly proves that new American heroes can be found in the obscured corners of this country's history."—Bowery Boys, American History Book of the Year 2020

Library Journal

08/01/2019

The life of Henrietta Wood (1818–1912) was an odyssey. Born into slavery, Wood tasted freedom once, but was kidnapped, reenslaved, and then freed again. From her home state of Kentucky, she journeyed to New Orleans; Cincinnati; Natchez, MS; Texas; then back to Cincinnati, finally settling in Chicago. After being reenslaved in 1853, Wood sued unsuccessfully for her freedom. She sued again for reparation of lost wages after the Civil War. With the help of others, and in spite of many hurdles and stumbling blocks, she managed to win a judgment for a tenth of the wages for which she sued. McDaniel (history, Rice Univ.; The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery) renders an enthralling biography of a determined, resilient woman. Using creative fiction techniques, he builds on Wood's story, which she recounted in interviews with two Ohio newspapers in 1876 and 1879. Wood's primary antagonist, Zebulon Ward, against whom she sued for reparation, was a wealthy man, principally through leasing prison labor in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas for manufacturing various products. VERDICT A well-researched, well-told story that also contributes to the debate about reparations. Recommended for both academic and general readers.—Glen Edward Taul, formerly with Campbellsville Univ., KY

JULY 2020 - AudioFile

With a historian’s dispassionate clarity and a bit of irony, narrator Paul Heitsch, delivers the singular story of Henrietta Wood, a free Black woman who was living and working in Cincinnati in 1853 when she was kidnapped, taken south, and sold “down the river” to a Mississippi plantation owner. Wood went on to return home after the Civil War, regain her freedom, and raise a son. She also successfully sued the white man who sold her 20 years earlier for damages, the only formerly enslaved person ever to do so. Although it seems a missed opportunity not to have cast a Black narrator, this Pulitzer Prize-winning history provides a comprehensive, multifaceted overview of how slavery worked in the United States and is an absolute must-listen for our times. B.P. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2020-05-05
A professor of history pulls back the curtain on a hidden episode in the annals of American slavery.

Henrietta Wood, writes McDaniel in this excellent history, was born into servitude thanks to a Kentucky law that decreed a child of an enslaved mother, no matter who the father or the hue of their skin, to be also a slave. She was sold, sent to New Orleans, and then brought to Cincinnati, where her owner freed her. Five years later, she was hoodwinked by a supposedly sympathetic white woman, driven across the river into the slave state where she was born, and sold into “a decade of reenslavement in the Deep South.” Even as she was sent to the cotton fields, friends in Cincinnati undertook to free her, and the ensuing lawsuits lasted decades; as the author writes, “the news spread quickly across abolitionist networks,” reported by none other than Frederick Douglass. Eventually, Wood sued sometime owner and middleman Zeb Ward, a loathsome fellow who made his fortune by leasing prisoners and working them to death. Ward bragged even after losing the suit that he was “the last man to pay for a negro slave in this country,” as a reporter at the trial noted. Wood won a settlement of $2,500, which enabled her son to buy a home in Chicago and attend law school, after which he worked for decades as a trial lawyer. As for Ward, he “was reborn in the national press as a harmless, walking stereotype: that of the genial Kentucky colonel who liked to sip mint juleps and talk about horses.” Wood’s victory was significant, writes McDaniel. The payout was small considering the grave injustices she had suffered, but it remains “the largest known sum ever awarded by a US court in restitution for slavery.” The author writes nimbly of past events while giving a clear view of present concerns—including whether restitution is a possibility today, more than 150 years after emancipation.

A superb work of historical detection, admirably well written and full of surprises.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172426674
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	01/14/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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