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The Untold Story of How One Woman Liberated the South's Most Notorious Slave Jail
by Kristen Green
The inspiring true story of an enslaved woman who liberated an infamous slave jail and transformed it into one of the nation's first HBCUs.
In The Devil's Half Acre, New York Times bestselling author Kristen Green draws on years of research to tell the extraordinary and little-known story of young Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who blazed a path of liberation for thousands. She was forced to have the children of a brutal slave trader and live on the premises of his slave jail, known as the "Devil's Half Acre." When she inherited the jail after the death of her slaveholder, she transformed it into "God's Half Acre," a school where Black men could fulfill their dreams. It still exists today as Virginia Union University, one of America's first Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
A sweeping narrative of a life in the margins of the American slave trade, The Devil's Half Acre brings Mary Lumpkin into the light. This is the story of the resilience of a woman on the path to freedom, her historic contributions, and her enduring legacy.
Good nonfiction books for book clubs?
...ken, any of Metzger's Conspiracy books, and A Fever in the Heartland), three that are worth reading include: Prisoners of the Castle by Ben Macintyre The Devil's Half Acre by Kristen Green The Escape Artist - Jonathan Freedland
-Jill_Mercier
"intriguing....Green packs the narrative with vivid details about 19th century Richmond, the domestic slave trade, and the history of Black education in America. This is a valiant and thought provoking attempt to rescue a life lost to history." ―Publishers Weekly
"Green's research offers readers a moving, insightful picture of the families and friendships of enslaved women, those whose stories have long been erased." ―Shelf Awareness
"Rescued from the horror of slavery and the neglect of history, Mary Lumpkin's life story in The Devil's Half Acre is one of tenacity, endurance, courage, and achievement." ―Margot Lee Shetterly, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Hidden Figures
"A remarkable achievement. With precision and care, Green has reconstructed Mary Lumpkin's life—and so many others—from a historical record that has sought to erase the contributions of Black women at every turn." ―Beth Macy, New York Times–bestselling author of Dopesick
This information about The Devil's Half Acre was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kristen Green is a reporter and the author of the New York Times bestseller Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County, which received the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Nonfiction and the People's Choice Award. She has worked as a writer for two decades for newspapers including the Boston Globe, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. She holds a master's in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, and lives with her husband and two daughters in Richmond, Virginia.
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