![]() ![]() “Black folk were spoils of war, if they were more than a nuisance,” Morrow writes, “and their greatest value was in not being available to serve the Confederacy. ![]() Roanoke, and a handful of other settlements like it, were considered “contraband camps” by the Union. As Morrow notes in an afterword, she didn't learn about this history until researching the novel. Readers may be familiar with Roanoke Island's mysterious history during the colonial period, but few are aware that it was home to a colony of free, formerly enslaved people during the Civil War. In the wake of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the Marches have settled on Roanoke Island, along North Carolina’s Outer Banks. ![]() ![]() However, the experiences faced by Morrow’s March sisters-formerly enslaved young Black women-are drastically different from those of Alcott’s more sheltered white family. Like Alcott’s novel, So Many Beginnings takes place during the American Civil War. Morrow ( A Song Below Water) proves up to the challenge of remixing Louisa May Alcott’s most famous work: Little Women. ![]()
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