The Water Dancer

 The Water Dancer is a novel written by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This is a novel set mostly in Virginia and Philadelphia before the Civil War. Once beautiful plantations in Virginia are going downhill because the soil has been worked to death. Hiram Walker was born on a plantation as a tasked (enslaved) person. His father is the owner of the plantation. His mother was sold when he was nine years old. His half brother, Maynard, will inherit the plantation when their father dies. Hiram and Maynard are opposites. Hiram is a tasked person, bright, eager to learn, and has an incredible memory. Maynard is a future plantation owner, slow to learn, crude, and brutal. Eventually Hiram tries to leave the plantation. Some parts of the novel have an element of fantasy. Hiram eventually meets Harriet Tubman. Harriet shows him something called conduction. Conduction happens when you have a strong memory and are near a body of water. When these two things come together, you can travel over the water as if the earth were made of fabric that has folded over. Legend has it that some people did this as the slave ships left Africa.  Some slaves managed to jump overboard, walk over the ocean and back to their homes. I enjoyed this book because it looks at slavery from a completely different angle.