Diverting reading

Sugar Island

Already Emily has won the hearts of her American audiences, both for her acting and her writing. She attracts the attention of Charles Earl Brook but she manages to resist his charms.

When her father is killed in an accident, Charles persists and Emily succumbs.

She discovers that Charles is not just a lawyer but a southern plantation owner — that is, a slave owner. After a honeymoon in Italy they move to St Simons Island.

To her horror, Emily finds 700 slaves kept in inhumane conditions. They are also brutalised for the slightest misdemeanour, and the women are often “forced” — either by their foreman or white men. Emily tries to persuade Charles to improve their living standards, to no avail.

When she visits the clinic and sees the appalling conditions she tries to alleviate their suffering. But gradually she becomes aware that her wealth — and therefore her power — now belongs to her increasingly controlling husband. He also prevents her from publishing any more work. The stark contrast between the lush setting and the pitiful hovels lived in by the slaves is not lost on Emily.

But frustratingly, she appears to do very little for them, except to buy material for clothes, to offer the children money if they wash their hands, and to ensure the clinic is kept in a

cleaner state. She does briefly threaten a hunger strike, which her husband ignores — he is rather pleased, in fact, because he’d like her to lose weight gained since her pregnancy — but she only lasts two days. While she does befriend Frank, one of the slaves, and teaches him to read, on occasion she snaps at her maid, and once she strikes a slave who is holding her crying infant. She also expects to be dressed by her maid. One can’t help wondering how she managed previously, without help.

Her relationship with Charles is also riddled with contradiction. It blows hot and cold, in spite of no apparent common ground. Despite his disrespectful treatment of her, she doesn’t consider leaving, until, on the brink of civil war, Ely arrives, and urges her to publish a pamphlet describing the conditions of slaves, in order to galvanise more people to the cause. To do so, however, may cost her her daughter.

O’Connell’s florid writing style is suited to the Southern setting, but its occasional Mills & Boon quality undermines its message. The novel is based on a true account by Frances Anne Kemble. This adds interest, but for the most part, the narration is naïve and the characterisation two-dimensional. Nevertheless, a diverting read.