All this I asked my son and you know what Thomas Kinsman replied? ‘Yes, Mama, yes. We must know of all of this.’
But why must I dwell upon sorrow? July’s story will have only the happiest of endings and you must take my word upon it. Perhaps, I told my son, upon some other day there may come a person who would wish to tell the chronicle of those times anew. But I am an old-old woman. And, reader, I have not the ink.
AFTERWORD
I TRUST I WILL be forgiven for this further intrusion upon my mama’s story. Although that good woman’s tale is at a close, it has left me, her son, with a quandary with which I hope the readers of this book might assist.
Within my mama’s careful narration you will recall the story of the second child that was born to her character July. Now, any careful reader of these pages will have realised that my mama’s tale, although purporting to be merely a fiction, closely follows the true circumstance of her own life. Therefore the child that was born to July—Emily—was a daughter that my own dear mama did indeed give life to. Emily Goodwin is my half-sister.
However, all trace of Emily Goodwin has been lost. Upon occasion my mama has expressed some curiosity as to what happened to her daughter. She has asked me, for example, whether Emily lives as a white woman in England? Does she reside within a fancy house or is she used as a servant? And upon several occasions my mama has become quite fretful when enquiring of me whether I believe her daughter Emily knows the real circumstances of her birth or remembers her mama? But then the pain of that parting soon causes that dear old woman to put all thought of Emily from out of her mind and feign indifference when any further mention is made of her.
But I have of late been puzzling upon the whereabouts of Emily Goodwin and the situation under which she now lives. Perhaps she is in England, unaware of the strong family connection she has to this island of Jamaica. She may have children of her own, who have no understanding that their grandmama was born a slave.
So here is where I come to my request. If any readers have information regarding Emily Goodwin—her circumstance, her whereabouts—I would be very obliged to them if they could let me know it. A letter to my print works here in Kingston, addressed to Thomas Kinsman, would always find me. And any news that might allow me to know what happened to my sister would be gratefully received. But here I would also give one word of caution to any wishing to eagerly aid me with this request. In England the finding of negro blood within a family is not always met with rejoicing. So please, do not think to approach upon Emily Goodwin too hastily with the details of this story, for its load may prove to be unsettling.
Thomas Kinsman
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I owe a great deal of thanks to many people for the help, advice, and support that I received during the writing of this noveclass="underline" Olivia Amiel, Maya Mayblin, Albyn Hall, Catherine Hall, Judy Bastyra, Dorothy Kew, Ele Rickham, Marilyn Delevante, Gad Heuman, Jill Russell, Charles Sweeney, Lola Young, Kate Pullinger, Olive Senior, Patricia Duncker and Sheila Duncker. I would also like to say a big thank you to all my friends and family (you know who you are) for being so wonderful when times got tough.
As this story is set in Jamaica during the 19th century I needed the knowledge of a great many other minds to help transport me to that time and place:
• Henry Bleby, Death Struggles of Slavery.
• Compiled and edited by Peter Barbar, Gin and Hell-Fire: Henry Batchelor’s Memoirs of a Working Class Childhood in Crouch End 1823-1837.
• Edited by F. G. Cassidy and R. B. Le Page, Dictionary of Jamaican English.
• Mrs Carmichael, Domestic Manners and Social Customs of the White, Coloured and Negro Populations of the West Indies.
• Roderick Cave, Printing and the Book Trade in the West Indies.
• Bryan Edward, The History, Civil and Commercial of the British Colonies in the West Indies.
• Edited with an Introduction by Moira Ferguson, The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave. Related by herself.
• Catherine Hall, Civilising Subjects; Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination 1830-1867.
• Fernando Henriques, Family and Colour in Jamaica.
• Gad Heuman, Between Black and White: Race Politics and the Free Coloured in Jamaica 1670-1970.
• B. W. Higman, Montpelier Jamaica; A Plantation Community in Slavery and Freedom 1739-1912.
• Matthew Lewis, Journal of a Residence Among the Negroes in the West Indies.
• Edited by Roderick A. MacDonald, Between Slavery and Freedom: Special Magistrate John Anderson’s Journal of St Vincent during Apprenticeship.
• Charles Manby Smith, The Working Man’s Way in the World.
• Montgomery Ward & Co catalogue no 57 1895 (facsimile).
• Lady Nugent, Lady Nugent’s Journal.
• Mrs Seacole (Edited by Ziggi Alexander & Audrey Dewjee), Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands.
• Olive Senior, Encyclopedia of Jamaican Heritage.
• Raymond T. Smith, Kinship and Class in the West Indies; A Genealogical Study of Jamaica and Guyana.
• Anthony Trollope, The West Indies and the Spanish Main.
• James Walvin, Black Ivory; A History of British Slavery.
• James Walvin, The Life and Times of Henry Clarke of Jamaica, 1828-1907
. . . And of course, the Internet.
I would also like to thank my agent David Grossman for his constant care and attention, and my UK editor Jane Morpeth for her wisdom. And finally, I am totally indebted to my husband Bill Mayblin not only for being my sensitive and tactful first reader, but also for everything else.