Yvonne Hilton was an assistant principal/supervisor of English. In her 32 years of teaching, she constantly analyzed literature, looking for the points of connection that made works come to life for high school students. Yet, for Yvonne, as a reader, it was always history, the events going on behind the narrative in a piece that held the real fascination. The Overseer’s Woman, her second novel, is the result of extensive research into rural slavery in New York, and information gained from summer visits to many still-existing estate farms. This story reveals day-to-day experiences of enslaved people during the 1700s. Yvonne currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The Overseer's Woman
by Yvonne Hilton
The Overseer's Woman
by Yvonne Hilton
Published Feb 11, 2021
208 Pages
Genre: FICTION / African American & Black / Historical
Book Details
A compelling novel about slavery in colonial New York, based on the lives of the people revealed by the excavations of the graves at the African Burial Ground.
Peter has run away twice. This time the overseer on the large estate farm in colonial New York decides to use his cat-o-nine-tails on the slave to teach a more thorough lesson. His young apprentice, Martin Tucker, is horrified, but grows to learn the useful application of whipping for the most serious offenses, like running. After all, he is the only white person on the place.
Sally is a 14-year-old slave newly arrived on the farm whom Tucker, now 30, chooses to become his mistress, but Sally loves a fellow slave, 16-year-old Lemuel. Over the next few years, Tucker impregnates Sally with five babies in quick succession. Sally eventually figures out a way to meet her lover, Lemuel—and gives birth to Polly, Lemuel’s child. Sally’s first five children resemble Tucker in coloring. Polly, on the other hand, is dark-skinned, like her mother and father, putting Sally in a dangerous situation. Will she be able to hide the existence of this child from Tucker?
Also by Yvonne Hilton
