Kin: Rooted in Hope by Carole Boston Weatherford

 

Yesterday, I finished reading Kin: Rooted in Hope by Carole Boston Weatherford. This historical fiction novel in verse is a journey through the author's family history. Her ancestors were among the founders of Maryland, but she could only trace them back five generations before the path went dark. From the small pieces of information she was able to gather, she tells the painful, yet hopeful, story of her kin. Through her poems, she brings to life and light the perspectives of her own ancestors (including an Isaac Cooper whose name was in a list of property in a ledger from 1781), Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and even Wye House itself, the plantation where her ancestors were enslaved.

This book tells a story that will stick with me for a very long time. Even if it's brutal and poignant at times, it was an amazing read, and I enjoyed how Carole Boston Weatherford included so many different voices. Although she certainly could have just included her ancestors, she also wrote poems from the perspectives of the Lloyds and Francis Scott Key, which showed how slavery was perpetuated by those born in slaveholding families. I definitely think it was necessary that she shed a light on that part of history because this country's founding fathers had problematic opinions, were cruel to those different from them, and didn't always do the right thing. Most importantly, the story shows how America was built from the labor of enslaved peoples. America couldn't have become the nation it is today without Black families, like Carole Boston Weatherford's. Even the poems from inanimate objects were fascinating, how they could only watch as atrocities against humanity were committed. Last, but not least, the scratchboard illustrations by the author's son, Jeffery Boston Weatherford, were absolutely beautiful. I loved the detail in all of them, the play of light and shadow and the emotions on the faces. I can't imagine how much time, effort, and love went into each picture. Kin: Rooted in Hope is phenomenal and I can't recommend it enough to anyone who wants to read a personal story of slavery.