Books like 'Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery'
Readers who enjoyed Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery by Heather Andrea Williams also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical slavery poc-mc civil-war university family
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The Attic Child by Lola Jaye
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA hauntingly powerful and emotionally charged novel about family secrets, love and loss, identity and belonging.Two children trapped in the same attic, almost a century apart, bound by a shared secret. Early 1900s Taken from his homeland, twelve-year-old Celestine spends most of the time locked away in the attic of a large house by the sea... -
![The Colours of Love by Rita Bradshaw]()
The Colours of Love by Rita Bradshaw
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCan love survive when all is lost? England is at war, but nothing can dim land girl Esther Wynford's happiness at marrying the love of her life - fighter pilot Monty Grant. Their short honeymoon results in a baby, but on the birth of her daughter, Joy, Esther's world falls apart... -
![Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan]()
Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this searing novel, a courageous young woman tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor as civil war devastates Sri Lanka.Jaffna, 1981. Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence... -
![Absolution by Carolyn Brown]()
Absolution by Carolyn Brown
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Irish are hardheaded so Elspeth Hamilton doesn't like them. The Mexicans are hotheaded so likewise, she doesn't think much of them either. Since Rebels burned her family home, killing both her parents in the Chambersburg, Pennsylvania fire, it stands to reason she surely doesn't waste affection on Rebels. Colum Sullivan is all three: Irish, Mexican and Rebel... -
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![Wild, Beautiful, and Free by Sophfronia Scott]()
Wild, Beautiful, and Free by Sophfronia Scott
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom award-winning author Sophfronia Scott comes the story of one young woman’s bold journey to reclaim her birthright and carve out her own place in a world that tells her she doesn’t belong. Born the daughter of an enslaved woman and a Louisiana plantation owner, Jeannette Bébinn is raised alongside her white half sister―until her father suddenly dies... -
![The Vanishing Woman by Doug Peterson]()
The Vanishing Woman by Doug Peterson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn 1848, Ellen Craft became invisible. Ellen, a slave from Macon, Georgia, took trains and steamboats north, but the people all around couldn t see her. They saw only a white man. Ellen Craft s mother was a slave, but her father was her master, and she had skin as white as his. So she posed as a white man, while her husband William posed as her slave... -
![Things Past Telling: A Novel by Sheila Williams]()
Things Past Telling: A Novel by Sheila Williams
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratings“This is a truly character-driven novel that explores how people define themselves, the creation of family and home, and the importance of memory and language. . . . Fans of historical epics won’t be able to put this book down.”—Historical Novel Society“Emotionally satisfying. . . . A remarkable character portrait... -
![Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter]()
Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIllus. in full color. "Winter's story begins with a peg-leg sailor who aids slaves on their escape on the Underground Railroad. While working for plantation owners, Peg Leg Joe teaches the slaves a song about the drinking gourd (the Big Dipper). A couple, their son, and two others make their escape by following the song's directions... -
![The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris]()
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA profound debut about the unlikely bond between two freedmen who are brothers and the Georgia farmer whose alliance will alter their lives, and his, forever.In the waning days of the Civil War, brothers Prentiss and Landry—freed by the Emancipation Proclamation—seek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife, Isabelle... -
![Princess Ces'alena by Mercedes Keyes]()
Princess Ces'alena by Mercedes Keyes
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBook one revolves around the world of Manny and Lena, as they struggle to live and love in a world where such passion, loyalty and devotion between a master and his slave is forbidden and taboo. Together with every breath they take, they go against convention to keep true what they deeply feel between them. A desire, an obsession so strong, they will pay the price of hell to stay together... -
![The Wake of the Wind by J. California Cooper]()
The Wake of the Wind by J. California Cooper
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA dramatic and thought-provoking novel of one family's triumph in the face of the hardships and challenges of the post-Civil War South.The Wake of the Wind , J. California Cooper's third novel, is her most penetrating look yet at the challenges that generations of African Americans have had to overcome in order to carve out a home for themselves and their families... -
![Plantation Trilogy: Deep Summer, The Handsome Road, and This Side of Glory by Gwen Bristow]()
Plantation Trilogy: Deep Summer, The Handsome Road, and This Side of Glory by Gwen Bristow
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNew York Times–bestselling author Gwen Bristow’s spellbinding Plantation Trilogy compiled in a single volume The Plantation Trilogy is an epic series of historical novels that bring to life the history of Louisiana, from its settlement in the late eighteenth century to the post–World War I era, via the intertwined lives of the members of three families: the Sheramys, the Larnes, and the Upjohns... -
![People of the Nightland by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear]()
People of the Nightland by W. Michael Gear, Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt has been a thousand years since Wolf Dreamer lead his people up through the dark hole in the ice to a rich, untouched continent bursting with game. But the world has changed. Most of the magnificent animals are gone, and the last of the great glaciers is melting, forming a huge freshwater lake in the middle of the world. Over the centuries the People of the Wolf have split into two clans... -
![The Long Way Home by Lauraine Snelling]()
The Long Way Home by Lauraine Snelling
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWill the War's End Bring the Highwood Family Together Again? When a disastrous decision by the new wagon master forces Jesselynn Highwood and her companions to separate from the wagon train, she races back to Fort Laramie to find a guide to take them to Oregon. But the guide has a far different plan, and following her heart, Jesselyn agrees to join him, her rag-tag band in tow... -
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![Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens]()
Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGrammy Award winner Rhiannon Giddens celebrates Black history and culture in her unflinching, uplifting, and gorgeously illustrated picture book debut. I learned your words and wrote my song. I put my story down...Categorized as:
family slavery poc-mc children-books historical outdoors children historical-fiction -
![Almost to Freedom by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson]()
Almost to Freedom by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLindy and her doll Sally are best friends - wherever Lindy goes, Sally stays right by her side. They eat together, sleep together, and even pick cotton together. So, on the night Lindy and her mama run away in search of freedom, Sally goes too. This young girl's rag doll vividly narrates her enslaved family's courageous escape through the Underground Railroad... -
![A Season of Swans by Celeste De Blasis]()
A Season of Swans by Celeste De Blasis
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe conclusion to the "Swan saga", completing a trilogy of novels that spans 100 years of American history and brings to life a memorable family. Seared by the firestorm of the Civil War, the Swan dynasty, led by Alexandra Carrington, struggle to rebuild their lives and their dreams... -
![The Fancy by Mercedes Keyes]()
The Fancy by Mercedes Keyes
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe slave trader, "fancy" dealer was saving the best for last, for a special auction. However, at hearing how close he'd come to losing his mother - his priorities, his plan shifted. Dr. Quinton Thaddeus Caine had saved his mother's life - for this deed, the young surgeon deserved the best that he could give in compensation. A gift - the best - a Fancy... -
![Ever My Love by Gretchen Craig]()
Ever My Love by Gretchen Craig
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOn the eve of Civil War, the daughter of Southern planters finds her loyalties tested in a magnificent saga of family pride and forbidden love...Brought up amid the luxury of plantation life, Marianne Johnston never questions her sheltered life until, driven by her conscience, she joins the Underground Railroad... -
![Encounter by Jane Yolen]()
Encounter by Jane Yolen
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Christopher Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador in 1492, what he discovered were the Taino Indians. Told from a young Taino boy’s point of view, this is a story of how the boy tried to warn his people against welcoming the strangers, who seemed more interested in golden ornaments than friendship...Categorized as:
poc-mc university family historical-fiction children-books historical fiction indigenous-mc -
![A Tangled Mercy by Joy Jordan-Lake]()
A Tangled Mercy by Joy Jordan-Lake
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTold in alternating tales at once haunting and redemptive, A Tangled Mercy is a quintessentially American epic rooted in heartbreaking true events examining the harrowing depths of human brutality and betrayal, and our enduring hope for freedom and forgiveness... -
![The Fig Orchard by Layla Fiske]()
The Fig Orchard by Layla Fiske
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe unforgettable story of a woman splintered by war and cultural mores, desperately struggling to hold her family together, THE FIG ORCHARD is a rich, compelling epic of love, heroism, family and empowerment... -
![Carolina Rain by Nancy B. Brewer]()
Carolina Rain by Nancy B. Brewer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOpen the page of Carolina Rain and step on the streets of an era gone by. Carolina Rain is not just a read, but an experience. You will smell the magnolia trees, feel the sun on your face and taste the bittersweet tears of a beautiful young girl coming of age at the dawning of the Civil War. Theodosia Elizabeth Sanders, "Lizzie" was born October 6, 1842... -
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![Engine Empire: Poems by Cathy Park Hong]()
Engine Empire: Poems by Cathy Park Hong
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEngine Empire is a trilogy of lyric and narrative poems that evoke an array of genres and voices, from Western ballads to sonnets about industrialized China to fragmented lyric poems set in the future. Through three distinct yet interconnected sequences, Cathy Park Hong explores the collective consciousness of fictionalized boomtowns in order to explore the myth of prosperity... -
![Redemption Song by Bertice Berry]()
Redemption Song by Bertice Berry
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOwner of a small African-American bookshop, Miss Cozy has an unique gift: Customers who walk through her door rarely leave without a book that speaks directly to their life. But when Josephine--"Fina"--and Ross arrive in search of an obscure, unpublished manuscript written by a slave woman, Miss Cozy knows that all her visions have been leading her to this magical day... -
![Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom by Shane W. Evans]()
Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom by Shane W. Evans
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA family silently crawls along the ground. They run barefoot through unlit woods, sleep beneath bushes, take shelter in a kind stranger's home. Where are they heading? They are heading for Freedom by way of the Underground Railroad."A stellar introduction to the Underground Railroad, narrated by a group of slaves...Categorized as:
poc-mc slavery civil-war family historical-fiction children-books historical fiction -
![Nowhere Is a Place by Bernice L. McFadden]()
Nowhere Is a Place by Bernice L. McFadden
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNothing can mend a broken heart quite like family. Sherry has struggled all her life to understand who she is, where she comes from, and, most important, why her mother slapped her cheek one summer afternoon. The incident has haunted Sherry, and it causes her to dig into her family's past... -
![The Colour Of Lightning by Paulette Jiles]()
The Colour Of Lightning by Paulette Jiles
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn 1863, as the War Between the States creeps inevitably toward its bloody conclusion, former Kentucky slave Britt Johnson ventures west into unknown territory with his wife, Mary, and their three children, searching for a life and a future. But their dreams are abruptly shattered by a brutal Indian raid upon the Johnsons' settlement while Britt is away establishing a business... -
![River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer]()
River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHer search begins with an ending.... The master of the Providence plantation in Barbados gathers his slaves and announces the king has decreed an end to slavery. As of the following day, the Emancipation Act of 1834 will come into effect. The cries of joy fall silent when he announces that they are no longer his slaves; they are now his apprentices. No one can leave...Categorized as:
family slavery poc-mc historical-fiction fiction historical literary-fiction audiobook -
![The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards, Alyson Richman]()
The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards, Alyson Richman
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, an ingenious young Black woman named Stella embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician... -
![Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah]()
Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA vivid love letter to the 1980s and one woman’s struggle to overcome the challenges of immigrationIt’s 1986, and Muna Heddad is in a bind. She and her son have fled Lebanon and moved to Montreal, leaving behind a civil war filled with bad memories.. She had plans to find work as a French teacher, but no one in Quebec trusts her to teach the language. She needs to start making money, and fast...Categorized as:
poc-mc family fiction historical-fiction audiobook literary-fiction historical 20th-century -
![The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley]()
The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWinner of the PEN/Faulkner Award"The Chaneysville Incident rivals Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon as the best novel about the black experience in America since Ellison's Invisible Man." — Christian Science Monitor The legends say something happened in Chaneysville... -
![A Long Way from Home by Connie Briscoe]()
A Long Way from Home by Connie Briscoe
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn Connie Briscoe's third novel, the connotations of home are anything but heartwarming. For an enslaved mother, daughter, and grandmother, Montpelier plantation in Virginia is a living hell- and the proprietor, at least initially, is none other than President James Madison... -
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![Up from Freedom by Wayne Grady]()
Up from Freedom by Wayne Grady
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor readers of Colson Whitehead, James McBride, Yaa Gyasi and Lawrence Hill, Up From Freedom is a powerful and emotional novel about the dangers that arise when we stay silent in the face of prejudice or are complicit in its development. As a young man, Virgil Moody vowed he would never be like his father, he would never own slaves... -
![The Slave Master's Son by Tiana Laveen]()
The Slave Master's Son by Tiana Laveen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe 1800s for Black Americans was a time of forced servitude, anguish, heartbreak, and strength of faith. John, a wealthy Richmond, Virginia slave owner's son, and Hannah, the Negro daughter of a protective and loving mother, grew up as playmates, sharing their lives and dreams. Soon a sweet and tumultuous love affair began that grew so strong John would risk everything before relinquishing it... -
![High Hopes for Addy by Connie Rose Porter]()
High Hopes for Addy by Connie Rose Porter
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn High Hopes for Addy, Addy's hopes seems shattered. Her baby sister, Esther, messes up all of her things, including her kite for the kite festival. Then, with Esther's help, Addy discovers just what it takes to make kites fly and dreams soar.After you read Addy's story, learn how to make a kite like the one Addy and her family made... -
![Jazz Moon by Joe Okonkwo]()
Jazz Moon by Joe Okonkwo
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn a lyrical, captivating debut set against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance and glittering Jazz Age Paris, Joe Okonkwo creates an evocative story of emotional and artistic awakening.On a sweltering summer night in 1925, beauties in beaded dresses mingle with hepcats in dapper suits on the streets of Harlem. The air is thick with reefer smoke, and jazz pours out of speakeasy doorways... -
![The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron]()
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn 1831 Nat Turner awaits death in a Virginia jail cell. He is a slave, a preacher, and the leader of the only effective slave revolt in the history of 'that peculiar institution'. William Styron's ambitious and stunningly accomplished novel is Turner's confession, made to his jailers under the duress of his God... -
![All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson]()
All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsExperience the joy of Juneteenth in this celebration of freedom from the award-winning team of Angela Johnson and E.B. Lewis.Through the eyes of one little girl, All Different Now tells the story of the first Juneteenth, the day freedom finally came to the last of the slaves in the South...Categorized as:
civil-war family slavery poc-mc historical-fiction children-books historical fiction -
![Five-Carat Soul by James McBride]()
Five-Carat Soul by James McBride
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsExciting new fiction from James McBride, the first since his National Book Award-winning novel The Good Lord Bird. The stories in Five-Carat Soul--none of them ever published before--spring from the place where identity, humanity, and history converge... -
![The Stockwell Letters by Jacqueline Friedland]()
The Stockwell Letters by Jacqueline Friedland
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom USA Today best-selling and multi-award-winning author Jacqueline Friedland comes a gripping work of fiction based on the true story of female abolitionist Ann Phillips and her connection to Anthony Burns, a young man who briefly escaped American slavery and rocked the nation with his astoundingly heroic story... -
![Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau]()
Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOf black Martinican provenance, Patrick Chamoiseau gives us Texaco (winner of the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary prize), an international literary achievement, tracing one hundred and fifty years of post-slavery Caribbean history: a novel that is as much about self-affirmation engendered by memory as it is about a quest for the adequacy of its own form... -
![North by Night: A Story of the Underground Railroad by Katherine Ayres]()
North by Night: A Story of the Underground Railroad by Katherine Ayres
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt's 1851 and Lucy Spencer's family is keeping a secret. Their Ohio home is a station on the Underground Railroad, the network of people and places that helps fugitive slaves escape to freedom in Canada. Lucy believes in what she and her family do to help the fugitives, even if it means putting herself in danger... -
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![This Other Eden by Paul Harding]()
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA novel inspired by the true story of the once racially integrated Malaga Island off the coast of Maine, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers.In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discovered an island where they could make a life together... -
![Sister Mother Warrior by Vanessa Riley]()
Sister Mother Warrior by Vanessa Riley
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAcclaimed author of Island Queen Vanessa Riley brings readers a vivid, sweeping novel of the Haitian Revolution based on the true-life stories of two extraordinary women: the first Empress of Haiti, Marie-Claire Bonheur, and Gran Toya, a West African-born warrior who helped lead the rebellion that drove out the French and freed the enslaved people of Haiti... -
![Drum by Kyle Onstott]()
Drum by Kyle Onstott
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe world of DRUM is a world of brutality, lust and miscegenation… where chained Negroes are sold like cattle… where prize specimens, male and female are chosen to work in exotic bordellos, and on slave-breeding plantations… where masters, drunk with the power of life and death, force their slaves to entertain them with unspeakable acts... -
![Apache Summer by Heather Graham, Heather Graham Pozzessere]()
Apache Summer by Heather Graham, Heather Graham Pozzessere
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThis month brings the unforgettable conclusion to the epic saga in which the indomitable Slater brothers discover the importance of family ties, loyalty and love amidst the conflict and despair of the Civil War. Jamie Slater had survived the Civil War, but he'd never outlive his reputation with a gun . . . THEY WERE WILDER THAN THE WEST . . -
![Good Fortune by Noni Carter]()
Good Fortune by Noni Carter
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBrutally kidnapped from her African village and shipped to America, Ayanna Bahati struggles to come to terms with her new life as a slave. Rising from the cotton fields to her master's house, Anna is threatened by the increasingly dangerous world of the plantation... -
![Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag by Rohinton Mistry]()
Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag by Rohinton Mistry
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFirozsha Baag is an apartment building in Bombay. Its ceilings need plastering and some of the toilets leak appallingly, but its residents are far from desperate, though sometimes contentious and unforgiving...
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