Nancy Gardner Prince

A 19th-century African-American woman undertaking this level of adventure ought to be fascinating, but unfortunately the prose skimps on details too much to make it work. Whether this is because Nancy Prince was a bad writer (my pet theory) or external factors such as a need to avoid offending the people who were going to buy her book and thus give her a livelihood (more probably the truth), I don't know. It's an interesting idea to discuss, but not always interesting to read. There is one exception: Prince's journey back from Jamaica to Massachusetts ends up taking her through the Deep South, and in her own country, she is in far more peril than she ever has been abroad...… (altro)