ALL WE WERE PROMISED

The lives of three Black women—one free, one enslaved, one in between—are entwined in Philadelphia in 1837.

Nell lives a life of relative privilege as the daughter of a prosperous, socially elite Black family that’s been free for generations. As she enters adulthood, she wants to give back, and so she throws herself into working with an abolitionist organization. Philadelphia, her home, is an ostensibly free city, but all around her she sees signs of racism and proslavery rhetoric that sometimes explode into violence. Evie is an enslaved teenager, brought from her home on a Maryland plantation to Philadelphia by her owner, a self-absorbed young widow, Kate, who has already sold off Evie’s mother and brother, leaving the girl brokenhearted. Linking Evie and Nell is another young woman. Nell knows her as Charlotte, a free Black domestic worker with a quick mind and ambitions, whom she befriends as an abolitionist ally. Evie has known her, much longer, as Carrie. They were enslaved on the same Maryland plantation until a few years before, when Carrie’s father, Jack, escaped with his daughter. In Philadelphia, Jack calls himself James—light-skinned enough to pass for white, he has established a successful woodworking business. But to maintain his disguise, his dark-skinned daughter must pose as his housekeeper, always hiding her past and calling herself Charlotte. Each woman wants to rise above her current life, but Evie’s need is most urgent—Kate is about to remarry and move to South Carolina, legendary for exceptionally brutal treatment of the enslaved. As Nell and Charlotte resolve to help Evie escape, Lattimore shows us the complex, deeply restrictive social structure that they must overcome to take action. The first part of the book moves slowly, but the pace picks up in the latter half as the escape plan for Evie takes shape. Although the book’s history lessons sometimes interrupt its narrative, the well-rounded main characters keep the reader engaged.

This rich historical novel widens the scope on the variety of Black American experiences.