The Dixie Widow is book 9 in a series. Two books previously we read about Sky Winslow and how he lived in Oregon and married a mail-order bride. Then in the next book, Sky & Rebekah have magically moved back east – to Virginia, where they became plantation (and thusly, slave) owners. I don’t really know why Mr. Morris didn’t have Joe (Sky’s son from his first marriage) be the father in this book, since when we left the last book Joe was only 12. Things could have happened to bring him east and to influence his thinking toward plantation (and slave) ownership. But I guess Mr. Morris just wanted us to see Sky & Rebekah’s family.
Sky is part Sioux, and comes from a family of pioneers. I had a really hard time believing 1) that they would move back to VA (there was no real reason given) and 2) that they would own slaves. Rebekah was raised in VA, but ran away from home to marry some guy and lived in NYC for a while before joining the mail-order bride train west. In the 8th book, she is fearful of and doesn’t understand Northeners.
The story is about Belle, Sky & Rebekah’s daughter. Her husband was killed at Antietam, and she swore she would hate Yankees from then on. She became a spy for the Confederacy, though, and her whole family thought she’d gone loony (because she had to reverse all that she had said before). The story is about hate and forgiveness and God’s ever-present hand on our lives.
I liked the story of the book, but I didn’t find it as intriguing as usual. One of the reasons I really enjoy Mr. Morris’ books is because he involves you in history instead of just telling you about it. He didn’t do that as well in this book (or in the previous book).
While I finished the book, I began to wonder why the family stayed in Virginia. They had the means (it seemed to me) to pack up and move west again. But they continued on in an area where their views (like schooling the slaves and freeing them and schooling poor whites in the area) were not welcome and where they would have to struggle to survive. But I forget that it is not easy to take a leap of faith and trust God. Jef worked for Evergreen for seven years. It took us a long time to take the leap!
