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Jul 04, 2018WoodneathBrad rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Cora, the main protagonist of this saga, is a third generation slave living on a plantation in antebellum Georgia. Having experienced atrocities from whites and blacks, she eventually decides to flee the plantation at the invitation of Caesar, a fellow slave who had been denied his promised freedom. Cora travels on a literal underground railroad to different states, and confronts obstacles at each one, experiencing a white separatist state in South Carolina, a white supremacist state in North Carolina, and a free black community in Indiana. All the while she is being tracked by Ridgeway, a ruthless slave-catcher. In a thought provoking narrative Whitehead offers vivid descriptions of the horrors of slavery and the racist ideologies that legitimated and sustained it. In providing insights into the thoughts and experiences of Cora and other slaves he also powerfully demonstrates how slavery has impacted the African American experience.