Aurhor: Mary E. Neighbour

ISBN: 159264144

The following review was contributed by: Sue Vogan: To read more of Sue's reviews Click Here

If there ever was a book that explained what it was like to be torn from your birth land, shipped as if you were a piece of lumber and dropped into an unknown world, Mary Neighbour's novel is at the top of the reading list.

If there ever was a victim of slavery that could personally convey what it was like being owned, mastered, beaten and sold, you will find the recounting here in the direct and easy tongue of Dred Scott. 

 Dred Scott recalls the story about his grandmother's sea voyage from Africa to America. Four hundred or so slave-prisoners held in the bottom of a ship, brought up, a few at a time, to entertain their captors, and food and water withheld, causing malnutrition and even death. A new mother of twins, her milk drying up, the newborns are near starvation. She produces tears, allowing the droplets to fall into the infants' mouths so that her babies might stop their crying, an effort to soothe her own flesh and blood. Before the long, agonizing trip is complete, there will be murder, sacrifices, and suicides. Those that endure will be sold as property to the white man who can afford the price.

Gran is one that lived to tell the tale, passing on to her grandson the African names of their ancestors and the dustheap that, without the telling, would be lost forever. She was also the most notable person in Dred's life. Teaching Dred the ways, as best she could, to be a man. Gran knew the ways of the white slave owners, how they whipped the black backs, sometimes just because; split families of slaves to settle debts, and hired their property out to their white friends and families. Against Gran's advice, Dred put stock in his owner and went so far as to help cover-up the master's personal problems. After all of this, the master still did not favor Dred when he chose a girl to be his wife. Instead of a blessing from the man he had shown his loyalty to, the girl was cuffed, forced to leave, and sold to another white man. Dred would never see her again, but his eyes were beginning to see what Gran had been saying since he was a child.

Dred finds himself smitten with a young slave, Harriett. He asks permission to marry, consent is given and the two begin a life very few slaves are permitted. They are rarely separated, have children that the master names (secretly, the children are given African names), and on May 26, 1857, the entire family is set free. The fight for freedom was a long, heart wrenching time, with clandestine plans and attempts at running. And freedom could never erase the dreadful events that Dred had witnessed. His and Gran's tale had to be set in print. Mary Neighbour captures details that enables the reader to feel the emotions, hear the whip crack, and touch history as if you were there.

The history and traditions depicted in Speak Right On are very different than those we learn from American history books. The tale will, if nothing else, open your eyes and perhaps offer a better understanding of what slavery was really like. In that understanding, there can be hope that this history will never again be repeated.