WHY by Marvin V. Blake
“WHY”, is an epic story, 1838 – 1863, chronicling the lives of two sisters, one white, the other black, both born in 1847, three days apart, on Virginia’s wealthy Rosewood Plantation.
The white sister is the child of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Billings, Master and Mistress of Rosewood, one of the richest cotton plantations in the state of Virginia.
The black girl is the issue of the mating of Henry Billings, the Master of the Rosewood Plantation, and one of his female black slaves.
While growing up together, one a slave the other her mistress, in the slave holding antebellum South, sharing many childhood experiences, the girls are forced to adhere to the harsh rules, and laws that separate white from black.
Henry and Margaret Billings, Master and Mistress of the plantation, hire a recent college graduate, Miss Eleanor Leary, a young progressive, Irish immigrant, to tutor their children, Rebecca and her brother, Jesse
Despite her fear of breaking the laws that prohibit the teaching of slaves to read and write, Eleanor, at Rebecca’s request, decides to include the black slave girl Mandy in their sessions.
A whole new world is opened for Mandy. Through the teachings and the eyes of the white teacher, Mandy slowly, gradually, discards her insidious, lifelong feelings of racial inferiority, and self-loathing. Feelings and assumptions that Mandy had harbored and accepted from birth were now being replaced by developing feelings of racial pride and personal self-esteem.
The novel examines three co-existing 19th century American Cultures. The privileged world of the South’s antebellum slave holding, White Planter Society; The oppressed communities of the black slaves; and the noble, nomadic hunter-gatherer society of the plains Indians.
The turbulent events of this time in American History, results in the two sisters finding themselves living in, and experiencing the three cultures, and one sister is forced to choose between her life-long love for her sibling, or the love that develops between her and a Comanche Warrior.
Marvin was born and raised in Baltimore Maryland, in its’ then, racially segregated-housing projects.
In 1957, three years following the Supreme Court landmark decision, i.e., Brown v. Board of Education, ruling that state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools as being unconstitutional, following his graduation from Cherry Hill Jr. High, at the insistence of his mother and the urging of one of his Jr. High School English teachers, Marvin was enrolled at, and subsequently, graduated from Baltimore’s previously all-white, Southern High School.
One of Marvin’s fondest memories of high school was that during his senior year at Southern High, Marvin was chosen for 2nd Tenor, section leader of what he and his fellow choir members proudly thought of as; “The World Famous, Southern High School Acapella Choir”.
After high school, Marvin enlisted and served nearly six years in the U.S. Navy.
While stationed, serving as a Hospital Corpsman at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Saint Albans New York, Marvin met, wooed, and married his beautiful, brilliant wife, Linda.
Marvin is a graduate of the United States Navy’s Hospital Corps School; the United States Navy’s School of Medical Technology; Long Island University (C.W. Post College); and the New School University.
His professional career has been spent as a Senior Hospital Administrator in several of New York City and Nassau County’s prestigious teaching Medical Centers.
In 2002, following the 9-11 terrorist attack on New York City, Marvin actively sought, and was subsequently offered, the position of Administrative Officer, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine for the New York and the Brooklyn VA Medical Centers.
Marvin retired from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs at the end of October, 2012.
“It was at my wife Linda’s urging (she later confessed …because after my retirement, I was constantly underfoot), that I decided to attempt to write a novel.”
https://marvinblakeauthor.com
www.booksbymarvinblake.com
https://www.amazon.com/WHY-Marvin-V-Blake-ebook/dp/B00VUDF86M/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&qid=1592599138&refinements=p_27%3AMarvin+V.+Blake&s=digital-text&sr=1-2&text=Marvin+V.+Blake
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