FRAGMENTS OF THE ARK

From Meriwether (Daddy was a Number Runner, 1986—not reviewed): a Roots-like, melodramatic historical that tells a compelling story of black freedom fighters and their families in the Civil War South. Peter Mango—based on real-life Robert Smalls—is a slave in Charleston, South Carolina. A skilled river pilot, he works for the Confederate navy, transporting troops and mining harbors. Peter hates risking his life to fight the Union troops, whose cause he supports, so he comes up with a plan: He and the rest of the slave crew steal the boat they work on, smuggle their families on board, and surrender to the Union, winning their freedom. Peter becomes a war hero; later, as a valued advisor to the naval officers in charge of the siege on Charleston, he has an audience with Lincoln and is lionized in Horace Greeley's influential column—yet the Union remains reluctant to enlist black soldiers. A few black regiments are finally formed and perform heroically, only to learn they'll be paid less than their white counterparts. And life is no easier after the war. While Peter and his friends fight to choose the work they do, to be paid fairly for it, and to buy land of their own, the laws governing their civil rights keep never in their favor. Meanwhile, Peter's wife, Rain, struggles with demons from her slave past. After losing their baby to malaria, Rain becomes obsessed with finding two other babies who were taken from her years before. Peter finds the girls and brings them home, but the sight of their light skin—a reminder of the master who raped Rain and her mother—almost ruins their marriage. Far from subtle but impressively researched—and Meriwether's portraits of a wide range of black Americans and their struggles to free themselves are a welcome window into a crucial part of America's past.