When 19-year-old Abeona Browne's renowned abolitionist father Jon Browne dies in summer of 1860, devastating family secrets are revealed, and her life of privilege and naiveté in Southern Michigan becomes a frantic transatlantic search for someone she didn't even know existed.
Still in mourning, Abeona sneaks aboard the ship carrying her fatherâs attorney Terrence Swifteâa man with his own secretsâon a quest to fulfill a dying wish.
Along the journey, Abeona learns of her fatherâs tragic and terrible past through a collection of letters intended for someone he lost long ago.
Passage to the Dark Continent is fraught with wild beasts, raging storms, illness, and the bounty hunters who know Jon Browneâs diaries are filled with damning secrets which could threaten the very anti-slavery movement he helped to build.
Can Abeona overcome antebellum attitudes and triumph over her own fears to right the wrongs in her famous familyâs sordid past?
A Thin Porridge is a Homeric tale of second chances, forgiveness, and adventure that will whisk readers from the filth of tweendecks, into the treachery of Cameroons Town, across the beauty of Table Bay, and deep into the heart of the fynbosâwhere Boer miners continue the outlawed scourge of slavery.
When 19-year-old Abeona Browne's renowned abolitionist father Jon Browne dies in summer of 1860, devastating family secrets are revealed, and her life of privilege and naiveté in Southern Michigan becomes a frantic transatlantic search for someone she didn't even know existed.
Still in mourning, Abeona sneaks aboard the ship carrying her fatherâs attorney Terrence Swifteâa man with his own secretsâon a quest to fulfill a dying wish.
Along the journey, Abeona learns of her fatherâs tragic and terrible past through a collection of letters intended for someone he lost long ago.
Passage to the Dark Continent is fraught with wild beasts, raging storms, illness, and the bounty hunters who know Jon Browneâs diaries are filled with damning secrets which could threaten the very anti-slavery movement he helped to build.
Can Abeona overcome antebellum attitudes and triumph over her own fears to right the wrongs in her famous familyâs sordid past?
A Thin Porridge is a Homeric tale of second chances, forgiveness, and adventure that will whisk readers from the filth of tweendecks, into the treachery of Cameroons Town, across the beauty of Table Bay, and deep into the heart of the fynbosâwhere Boer miners continue the outlawed scourge of slavery.
Dangling from the taffrail above infernal autumn seas, Abeona Browneâs precious seconds comprised of three thoughts: pitiless mitts digging her slender fingers and wrists; silent glide of shark under moonlit murk below; and thrum of life which beat in her ears as had her delicate palms on the African drum she bought the day her father died.
Seven weeks earlier, before the secrets, the lying, the broken bones and blood, the girl rose in the house of fey determined to break the spell of bleak and heartsick lonesome.
Her father had been ill for some months. So she decided that fine summer day he might be stirred from his present languor by some preferred confection and perhaps a nice gift.Â
In truth, Abeona Browne was the only city soul of consequence yet unaware of the great Jon Browneâs imminent demise.
There was nothing deceitful about hoping for the best. Still, the old manâs words rang in her skull a fire bell. âIs it true?â Thatâs what her father, could he have spoken, would have asked. The query beat upon her brain as accusation. For honesty was a burden she wasnât sure she could bear if even she had cared to.
Abeona Browne tried always to be truthful, even when she wasnât. Pretending to be cheerful, respectful, sympathetic. Wasnât a lie if no one got hurt. And the best way to ensure none ever lamented was to keep on smiling. When her mother died, she kept on smiling. When her father slipped away, she kept on smiling. When the pretty faces with the blue eyes scowled, she smiled and smiled and smiledâfor their grace, for the privilege of their company, and for her own rage.
âSure is an ugly, scrawny little thing,â said one white lady to the other.
âUppity as the day is long,â said the other to the one.Â
âDonât even get me started on that father of hers,â said the third.
As much as she hated the pale coven for its rancor, Abeona despised the women for their shrewdness: she was a bit skinny and immature for her age, she did have skin as dark as their hearts; her father was an unapologetic rabble-rouser; and, in her fine blue-flowered dress and red button-down boots, ordered special from France no less, she was the best-dressed woman of color in town.
âAaand, a dimeâs worth of peppermints,â Abeona told the graying lady with the pained grin other side of the counter. âDaddyâs favorites.â
âYes, Ms. Browne.â Clerk blew in a slim paper sack and counted out the red and white fingerlings from a large glass jar and jotted the item and its cost on her notepad.
ââBeansâ will do just fine. I do find formality utterly boring. Donât you?â
âIndeed.â Clerk shrugged and widened her eyes at the women far end of the counter. âSuppose it all depends, Ms. Beans.â
Fashionable girl of their contempt worked to appear too busy to notice them by searching her handbag. However, Abeona did hear the tapping of nails out of rhythm from each other, as well as the venomous whispers, loud enough for all.
âMs. is it?â
âHaughty so-and-so.â
âRight with you, ladies.â
âPlease, take your time,â said one of the women shoppers before turning to her companions. They were huddled before floor-to-ceiling shelves of tea tins, sacks of cornmeal, canisters of baking powder, jarred honey and strawberry preserves. Abeona had planned to pick up some orange pekoe for Uncle George but it would have to wait.
Harpies resumed their conversation in sharp derision.
âWhatâs she think sheâs doing in here?â
âGetting out of control, if you ask me.â
âUsed to know their place.â
Abeona closed her purse and stared at the sign below the counter: âNine Fine Cigars for 25 Cents.â But the words did not register.
Clerk spoke to Abeona much louder while watching the counter more than she ought to have. âHow is your father? Weâd heardââ
âJust fine. Stronger by the day.â Abeona noticed a rustic drum on a shelf behind the clerk. It was mahogany in color, cinnamon animal skin drawn about with black cord, and the base was carved with some hypnotic arabesque of old. Thing would easily have stood knee high from the floor. âWhat can you tell me about it?â
âThey call it a âdjembe.â Authentic African.â Clerk massaged the itemâs aura with salesmanly reverence. âBought from a merchant who traded two pair of childrenâs shoes for it when he was in Maryland, around Port Tobacco way. Imagine that. Made over here by someone from over there. Salesman assured me of its authenticity. A fine piece indeed.â
âItâs so big.â
Clerk disappeared behind the counter and came up grunting with a smaller version of the drum, an oversized wooden chalice just under a foot tall. âThere were two in the set but I donât see why we canât simply split them up.â
âPerfect late birthday present for Daddy. What do you call it again?â
âA âdjembeâ but donât ask me how to spell it.â
While the clerk wrapped the gift in newsprint and again in heavy brown paper, Abeona waited patiently, pretending not to notice the conversation which centered upon her.
âI heard heâs already dead in the ground. Waiting until the election to tell.â
âPloy to curry sympathy, if you ask me. Dreadful cause.â
âNonsense. Heâs in hiding. Knows heâs been beat.â
âActually,â Abeona took her change and stacked the packages on one arm, walked past the trio and opened the door. âActually, heâs on the mend. Iâll be sure and tell him you send your best.â
Jingle and clunk of the closing door silenced their baleful hisses.
Out on the street, Abeona trotted quick and steady, keeping pace with a horse and buggy. Her pigtail braids jostled out of time with the chamber music she hummed. She tried to appear as though nothing were wrong, but her cheeks were wet.
Girl stopped in an alley a few stores away to wipe her face and whip up a convincing smile when she was interrupted.
âChild. You there.â
The word was faint. Over Abeonaâs shoulder. It came again from within the alley. Peeking over a stack of crates, a tall forehead and eyes which accused her with the faraway look of a dead thing.
âYes?â Abeona backed away.
âPlease child, donât go.â A deep voice once feminine.
âFood. You gotâny? Just a little. So hungry.â
âIâm sorry. I donât.â Girl took another step toward the street when the tattered figure lunged from hiding. The woman had large rough hands and a pink checkered dress and smelled of garlic and tallow.
âWait.â The womanâs voice decayed from meek whisper to angry growl. âYou canât tell no body.â
âNo.â Abeona tugged her arm, trying to pull free without upsetting her stack of packages.
âGimme sumpin, you little bitch.â
âHelp!â Abeona jerked so hard she fell back in the street with the crazed woman on top. âHelp! Please! Robber!â
Shrill report of a whistle.
âWhy you couldnât just help.â Woman hiked her dress. Iron cuffs above gray ankles connected with heavy chain drooped between bare feet. Children screamed. Raggedy figure short-stepped-it quickly between buildings. Cop with his club drawn tore after, shrieks and slapping footfalls echoing off the brick.
âShoot. You good?â Paperboy helped Abeona to her feet.
Girl looked around, dumbfounded. âOne of each.â
She took copies of the Friday Aug. 3rd, 1860, Jackson Sentinel, and a Browneâs Gazette. Front pages of both featured photos and headlines announcing the upcoming visit of a presidential candidate. Tall fella from Springfield.
âMiss Browne.â The boy tipped his flat cap. âNo charge. Give Mr. B my best.â
âYes. Of ⊠of course.â Abeona strained to see down the alley, but her attacker and the policeman had vanished along with the commotion. Eaten perhaps by some natural force as morning sun consumes frigid haze. She stuffed more than the cost of her purchase into the boyâs shirt pocket and went on.
An elderly white couple, ruddy-cheeked from the dayâs heat, wished Abeona and her ailing father well as they passed. Others, too, echoed the heartfelt sentiments. The girl responded without thinking, wondering who the woman was and where she had come from.
âBeans!â A group of small, straw-haired girls jumping rope. âBeans!â
Abeona stacked her packages neatly atop the newspapers to keep the breeze from stealing them. She jumped a few times before becoming snagged. The sisters giggled and promised to show her, âhow gooder jump-ropers jump rope.â Abeona clapped and cheered as they hopped and sang but still her mind was on the woman in the alley.
Tornado of white boys, elevens and twelves, appeared across the road. Shouted their warrior names and pledged their deadly oaths and swung sticks in some decisive battle.
When they were closer, one of the boys called, âGet offa my castle!â
The little girls scattered, ropes trailing, like some wounded albino squid giddy with escape. Abeona gathered her things and bid the jump-ropers goodbye.
âIâm talkin to you, mutt. Whatta you doin over here?â
Rocks caromed off the brick wall and hit Abeonaâs foot. She pressed on, face forward, steps quickening as she pretended to admire the pink paver stones moving steadily underfoot, appreciating the white pickets below the gas lamps asleep in their black iron cradles.
âLeave me be,â she said in a voice no one heard. Trembling, Abeona glanced over her shoulder. Boys were distant now, congratulating one another for such bravery.
She stopped to rest at the edge of town before making the journey home. Should have let Jimmy drive her in like heâd offered but there was nothing to be done now. There, on the corner in front of the cityâs other general store sat a small crying child. Abeona knelt next to him and tapped the drum.
âWhatta you want?â Boy looked up with wet cheeks, brown eyes, precious scowl.
âOh, nothing.â
Boy wiped his face angrily.
âWhy so sad? Itâs a beautiful day.â
âMama gonna whup me.â
âWhy would she ever do a thing like that?â
âPosta bring home sugar.â He spoke in sobs. âBut they stoled it.â
Abeona didnât ask which âthey.â She thought of the hungry slave woman and dug around in her pocketbook.
This is a story of a woman's fight to clear her family's name, while bringing together the entire family, one that she didn't even knew existed. As one for high quality historical fiction, the author did an entirely thorough job researching this book. Settings in America and Africa in the 1800s, the author gives us a glimpse of life through the eyes of Abeona Browne, an African-American girl of society.
From her viewpoint we encounter trials and situations of slave trade in Africa, learning about the suffering of people who were fiercely separated from their families. Gohs gives his readers a look into the past, sharing the abuse and suffering that went on during this time. Gohs beautiful writing has us feeling the intense heat, the beautiful landscapes and the wilderness. Some of my favorite scenes take place on the ship, where Abeona buys passage in the steerage compartment and we feel the intense suffering of those that live there. Her illness, her understanding of the abuse that women endured at the hands of the crew, were all vividly written. My stomach actually twisted during some of the more graphic scenes.
While the story started out slow for me, the book picks up speed once Abeona makes the decision to take on the rumors that are being spread about her father. Her bravery, foolishness and immaturity often get her in trouble, but this is a woman who learns from her mistakes, and becomes the keeper of her father's secrets. She becomes the woman who understands the larger issue at hand, and through new found maturity and grace, who demands and receives respect that she is due.
This is a page turner (after the first couple of chapters) and you will want to slow down and take in all the detail, the sinister as well as the hopeful. It will be an impossible task, but in the end, you will be glad you spent your time with this incredible story.