The Third Mrs. Galway
"In this eloquent debut, a diverse cast of characters embodies the political, class, and racial upheavals of its time and milieu, and does it all in living local color . . . [A] powerful look at the prologue to Emancipation." --Kirkus Reviews
It's 1835 in Utica, New York, and newlywed Helen Galway discovers a secret: two people who have escaped enslavement are hiding in the shack behind her husband's house. Suddenly, she is at the center of the era's greatest moral dilemma: Should she be a "good wife" and report the fugitives? Or will she defy convention and come to their aid?
Within her home, Helen is haunted by the previous Mrs. Galway, recently deceased but still an oppressive presence. Her husband, injured by a drunken tumble off his horse, is assisted by a doctor of questionable ambitions who keeps a close eye on Helen. In charge of all things domestic is Maggie--formerly enslaved by the Galway family and freed when emancipation came to New York eight years earlier.
Abolitionists arriving in Utica to found the New York State Anti-Slavery Society are accused by the local papers of being traitors to the Constitution. Everyone faces dangerous choices as they navigate this intensely heated personal and political landscape.
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Deirdre Sinnott is an author, researcher, and activist for social change. She grew up in the region of Utica, New York, and graduated from Syracuse University. Sinnott speaks nationally about the role of Central New York's residents in the abolition of slavery. She was the originator of Utica's Abolition History Day Celebration and has directed two award-winning documentaries on mass incarceration/prison issues. She facilitated the program "Resisting the New Jim Crow" at the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum. Sinnott's writing has appeared in newspapers, two anthologies, literary journals, and in various online resources. The Third Mrs. Galway is her first novel. She is a historical consultant for the Fort Stanwix Underground Railroad History Project, funded by the National Park Service.
With its impressive attention to historical detail, The Third Mrs. Galway showcases novelist, researcher, and social activist Deirdre Sinnott exceptional flair for an inherently entertaining and narrative driven storytelling style.-- "Midwest Book Review"
Utica-area native and local historian Sinnott's deep knowledge of the abolition movement in upstate New York informs this nuanced portrayal of white ambivalence and anti-slavery activism.-- "Booklist"
Sinnott offers a rich history of the burgeoning abolitionist movement.
Never has an author as gifted as Sinnott given us so rich a tapestry of historical context . . . Sinnott is so talented a writer that she makes the reader believe that the Erie Canal is itself an embodiment of the struggle between freedom's advocates and those who would deny African Americans, both free and enslaved, the right to decide their own destiny.--Dr. Milton C. Sernett, Professor Emeritus, African American Studies and History, Syracuse University
