I claim these people and admit their claim upon me.

from To Free the Captives by Tracy K. Smith
“Communion across the mortal divide,” Smith calls it. The link backwards through time to all who came before, those connected by blood, and those connected by common experience and history.

There is strength in this connection, and a circle of family that transcends family.

I have felt that connection. I have traced my ancestors back centuries. To a man persecuted for his Anabaptist faith, imprisoned and his goods confiscated, his family turned out of their home. To the Swiss Brethren minister, an early settler in the Shenandoah Valley, who was scalped and killed, along with his wife and several children; luckily, my distant grandmother escaped.

Smith traces her ancestors back to the Middle Passage, to slavery, to Sunflower, Alabama where he father was born. Hers were Freed people–not Free–for there is a difference between born to freedom and being granted freedom. Freedom granted can be taken away.

Smith shares her family history and her own story in this luminous memoir. She struggles with the past and shares her concerns for the future awaiting her sons. She responds to the murder of black youth and wonders about America’s future.

This hauntingly beautiful and moving memoir offers revelation and hope for the future.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book. ( )