A True Story Of Slavery And Restitution In America by W. Caleb McDaniel — Review

A masterfully researched reverie on the impacts of reparations based on the remarkable story of an extraordinary American woman, born into slavery, who eventually escapes and successfully sued her captor for reparations

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The Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America (Oxford University Press, 2019/2022: Amazon US / Amazon UK) is the epic story of Henrietta Wood, who was born into slavery in Kentucky sometime around 1820, freed in Ohio, then kidnapped five years later, sold and re-enslaved during the Civil War and for two years afterwards before being freed once more. After regaining her freedom for the second time, she sued her captor. It took ten years of litigation to obtain justice but finally, in 1878, an all white jury in Cincinnati, Ohio, returned its verdict in Ms Wood’s favor, assessing reparations from Zebulon Ward, who kidnapped and enslaved her. The jury awarded $2,500 to Ms Wood for her thirteen years of forced labor (far less than the $20,000 she demanded). But surprisingly, Ms Wood actually received the settlement, a sum that is the equivalent to about $65,000 today. To date, this is the largest reparations judgment for slavery.

This meticulously researched book is more than a biography or a personal history. It demonstrates the powerful impact that cash payments — even small payments — can make in the lives of people, especially when well-timed. In Ms Wood’s situation, she used her award to purchase a house, mortgage free, after relocating to Chicago. Interestingly, despite being illiterate herself, her son, Arthur Simms, was highly educated. He eventually used the equity in his mother’s house to finance his law degree and then to launch his very successful legal practice. This one remarkable family has continued its legacy of achievements through its generations, which makes one wonder how different things could have been for even more formerly enslaved people if they also had received reparations.

The author of this haunting book is US historian W. Caleb McDaniel, a professor and chair of the Department of History at Rice University, and co-chair of the Rice University Task Force on Slavery, Segregation, and Racial Injustice. In this book, Professor McDaniel states that reading “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates inspired and informed his own research and writing of Sweet Taste of Liberty. Further, Mr Coates also recommended Professor McDaniel for the fellowship that enabled him to write this book.

Much of Professor McDaniel’s painstaking research into the basic outline of Ms Wood’s life story was provided by two newspaper interviews with Ms Wood herself by journalist Lafcadio Hearn and another interview conducted many years later with her son. Professor McDaniel also retrieved and investigated surviving records from Ms Wood’s two court battles, one from 1855 after she was kidnapped and the other in 1868-1878 when she sued her kidnapper. Additional details of what daily life might have been like for Ms Wood were provided by reports from other enslaved people living nearby and doing similar tasks at the time. Ironically, slave owners’ business records, which were created to document financial losses for posterity also provided additional details about the lives of enslaved people.

One discussion in this book that further confirmed my own growing suspicions about American penitentiaries was the historic overview of how they were intentionally structured to mirror slavery on plantations, particularly its brutalities and injustices, to create an emotionally satisfying income stream for vindictive white southern ‘gentlemen’. This further solidifies the shameful connection between between white greed, slavery and America’s high rate of incarceration of Black Americans.

I admire Ms Wood’s tenacity and her astonishing faith in the white people around her who volunteered to help her fight against a cruel and immoral system. Professor McDaniel’s captivating and thoughtful book goes a long way to argue for the immense value of reparations and to put a personal face on the history of 19th century America. This book also reclaims the incredible story of Henrietta Wood, who is a true hero, from being forever forgotten by the American public.

Highly recommended.

Note: this book won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for History.

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