A Long Way From Home Hardcover – July 7, 1999

This is a great story of a young slave girl and her family. It is an easy book to read and interesting. I enjoy reading historical novels. The details of this era of our history intrigue me.

I find myself re reading this book about every few years or so, I keep it in my personal library.

This book was set during slavery and around the beginning and end of the Civil War. I have to say that I liked but also didn't like it if that makes sense lol. I have to be honest, the story moved to slow in certain parts so it took me several days to finish it other than that it was an ok read. I wouldn't say it was a keeper but it was definitely interesting story. It's about two sisters who are biracial that get separated because one of them is sold. They eventually find each other at the end of the Civil War.

love this author

A LONG WAY FROM HOME caught my interest because it read like threee different stories surrounding three generations of women who lived on the same plantation, yet saw their world in three different ways. Suzie is a slave and she can't see any other life outside of working for white people, and why should she when she was born the daughter of slaves and was raised that way. Her perception is that blacks are safer having masters. Her daughter Clara run on a slightly different track. Having a mother who lives in the big house is a pretty big deal, and when that house is occupied by the former president James Madison, then life can be tolerated. It's also not her fault that she was also born of fair skin and long hair. She sees slavery from the perception of someone who has never had to work the fields or lives in the rundown houses her friend's parents have to. She actually wonder why they don't just move to better quarters. Later on, we meet Clara's daughter Susan, and her lifestyle is taken when she is sold to a family in another state, a life that become more complicated when she suspects that the head of the household might be her father. Susan becomes the caretaker of the grandchildren living there and sees her role in life ever diminishing, until she meet a free black man, papers and all. It's then she opens her eyes and focuses on her role in this world as a black women with her mother's features, especially with slavery about to be abolished and her charges not willing to let her go. Books that use slavery as a focus point are not my cup of tea and I usually let them pass, however, this novel reads very smoothly and showcases three women at different points of life during a very turbulant timeframe, all wanting to do one thing-survive the best way they know how. Excellent!

Connie Briscoe's "A Long Way From Home" is being classified as fiction. It's not, entirely. Based on a true story, it seems very real.Briscoe writes about her own ancestors, using family stories handed down through the generations, research she's done, and an obvious love of the subject matter. She succeeds in weaving together a fascinating biography of sorts. It's a stirring account of the everyday lives of slaves in the South before and during the Civil War. The three generations of women are, first of all, survivors. They are strong, courageous and trapped in a nearly-hopeless situation.Overworked and sleep deprived, the women have to watch out for all kinds of hazards -- including the possibility of rape. Susie, a house slave, has to be very strict on her young daugther Clara; should Clara not please the owners with her work, she could be punished, sold or forced to work in the fields -- an even harsher life. Clara, in turn, continues this practice with her two daughters. Always, the slaves are subject to the whim of their masters, and their fate rests on the owners' benevolence. At first, family has one thing going for it: the Madisons try to keep families intact and not sell slaves without the person's permission.Not so with subsequent owners, and granddaughter Susan finds herself being brutally hauled off at a young age to a new owner in the city. This is the family's punishment for her older sister's running away to escape the same fate. The book's title comes from Susan's being a long way from home. She does adapt, and the account of her romance with a freed slave, later her husband, is interesting. I learned a lot about the lives of freed slaves in the Confederacy. This book is destined to be a "must" for Black History Month, but it is a wonderful read for anyone of any ethnic background. It'd be a wonderful book for high school libraries. With the new interest in Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemmings, people will naturally be more curious about the union of black slaves with white masters. Of course, slavery is horrible to even contemplate, but I was even more shocked by the book's implication that Susan, the granddaughter, may have been the (illegitimate) daughter of the man who bought her as a "wedding gift" for his white daughter. How could someone make their own child be a slave? Even worse, Susan is so busy caring for her owners' children that her health, pregnancy and the health of her own infant, is jeopardized. Of course, the Civil War brings on many changes, also documented in the book. When finally free, the former slaves still face many hardships, but their courage and tenacity wins out in the end. "A Long Way From Home" is a moving account of the struggles of three strong women. Read it! You'll go away with a better understanding of, and with new respect for, what the blacks in the South had to endure.

Enjoyed this story, interesting historical perspective. Wonderful author.Great service from vendor. Will use them again. 😊

This book was the best book I have read all year. It definitely was a good break from the same old scene that I normally read daily. I was engaged from the beginning to the end and could not wait to get to the end. I still yearned for some unanswered questions, but like life, everything is not always revealed and you most just apply gut feelings. I love reading stories set back in slavery days and this did not let me down. Definitely a must read for everyone.