Woman of Light: family, discrimination and the fight for survival

Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo Anstine is a multigenerational story of betrayal, love and fate of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West. Luz “Little Light” Lopez is a tea leaf reader and laundress who lives with her Tia Maria Josie and her older brother Diego in 1930s Denver, Colorado. When Diego is run out of town by a violent white mob, she is left to fend for herself and finds herself fighting against bigotry and racism. She begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland of the Lost Territory. She thinks back to her ancestors’ origins, how her family has been threatened and how they have survived. Luz begins to realize that it is up to her to save the family stories and ensure that they will be passed on and remembered. What will she discover about her family’s secrets and their will to survive? 

Woman of Light is beautifully written, weaving past and present together like a tapestry of one family’s heartaches and joys. It is slow paced as the story weaves in and out of time. Unfortunately, I felt no connection to Luz or her family. The story ended abruptly leaving me with a lot of questions. I did enjoy the mystical aspects of the story which added an air of mystery. However, the story still felt wanting, like something was missing. There were historical aspects of the 1930s that didn’t seem to fit into the story and out of place. For example, the constant newsreels of Bonnie and Clyde. I understand that the nation was following their exploits but how does it connect with Luz? Why would she care? If the premise of Woman of Light, I recommend giving it a read. Maybe it will speak to other readers more than it did for me. 

Woman of Light is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook. 

The Depth of Beauty: not as good as the first book in the Golden City series

The Depth of Beauty is the second book in A.B. Michaels’ The Golden City series. It is 1903, San Francisco and Chinatown is teeming with a vice just blocks away from the city’s elties. But Will Firestone sees the district as a potential business market for his shipping enterprise. Dazzled by the exotic young widow from Canton, Will is drawn into the area with a decision that will rock his foundation and lead him down a treacherous path. Country girl, Maddy Culpepper is only fifteen when she’s orphaned and becomes a ward of the Firestone family. Grateful for her new privilege status, she is determined to give back. She decides to help the Chinese immigrant girls in jeopardy, even if it means her own safety and puts her at odds with her guardians and other elites. The tensions are rising between the city's powerful and the evil foreigners but an horrifying disease will bring them together in ways no one imagined and thrust them together for a fight for their very lives. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the Golden City, The Art of Love, and I looked forward to continuing the series. However, The Depth of Beauty did not have the same impact as the first book. It was slow and dragged the tensions between the city elites and the Chinese immigrants for far too long. The epidemic which plagues the city seems to be an afterthought, although historical, and wasn’t fully flushed out. It was hard to get invested in any of the characters and I was intrigued that the book would focus on San Francisco’s growing Chinese immigrant population, but I felt I wasn’t truly getting a picture of the widespread racism and discriminations against the Chinese immigrants at the time. The relationship between Will and Maddy seemed forced and far-fetched, although the age difference would have been common for the time. There was so much potential that the book presents but couldn’t fulfill all of it. The Depth of Beauty was a disappointment after The Art of Love. I do not recommend The Depth of Beauty. 

The Depth of Beauty is available in paperback and eBook. 

On this day in history: Frederick Douglass publishes the first issue of The North Star

Today in history Frederick Douglass begins to publish his newspaper, The North Star. Douglass is an important part of American history as he was a social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman at a time when the commonly held belief stated he couldn’t, shouldn’t be able to. He was the living rebuttal to the argument of many slaveowners that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to be a functioning citizen. He would escape slavery in Maryland and would become a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York. Who was Frederick Douglass? What was his newspaper, The North Star? And what legacy does he leave us today?

Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey circa February 1818. The exact date of his birth is unknown. He chose February 14 as his birthdate as his mother called him “Little Valentine.” At age 6, he was given to the Auld Family and by age 8, Lucretia Auld sent him to her brother-in-law, Hugh Auld, in Baltimore. It was there that he began his education when Hugh’s wife, Sophia, began to teach him the alphabet, Fredrick would continue his education by teaching himself. In 1837, he met and fell in love with Anna Murray, a free black woman. After gaining his freedom, they would marry on September 15, 1838. They would be married for 44 years until her death in 1882. Douglass would write three autobiographies, the most famous, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave (1845), would be a bestseller and influential in the abolition movement. He would also be an active supporter of women’s suffrage. On February 20, 1895, he attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. He would die from a massive heart attack after returning home. He was 77.

Douglass was inspired to start his newspaper in 1846 after subscribing to The Liberator, published by William Lloyd Garrison. He began to publish his newspaper, The North Star, on December 3, 1847. The antislavery newspaper would run until June 1851 when it merged with Gerrit Smith’s Liberty Party Paper. The title is a reference to the directions given to runaway slaves in order to reach the Northern states and Canada: “Follow the North Star.” The North Star’s slogan was “Right is of no Sex. Truth is of no Color. God is the Father of us all, and we are brethren.” Eventually, The North Star would have more than 4,000 readers in the US, Europe, and the Caribbean. The newspaper focused on current events concerning abolitionist issues with editorials, letters from readers, news articles, poetry, and book reviews. He would write with great passion especially about the discrepancy in America’s Christian beliefs and the prejudice and discrimination he witnessed. Sadly, very few copies of The North Star survive as many of Douglass’ papers were destroyed in a fire in June 1872.

The legacy of The North Star and Douglass himself is that it gave readers an outlet and amplified the growing political power of the African American press (Georgini, 2019). His use of words to fight for freedom and rights for African Americans as well as women’s suffrage left an unmistakable mark on America. His autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, is still required reading for many high school and college students. He is an example of how people can shape their future (Staff, 2013). Douglass would encourage African Americans to rise above their beginnings and achieve freedom. He once stated that he “would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong” and reportedly reconciled with his former slaveowner, Thomas Auld, in 1877, when Auld was near death. Although Douglass was able to reconcile with his former owner, reconciling with slavery itself would prove harder. He once said, “Slavery is indeed gone, but its long, black shadow yet falls broad and large over the face of the whole country,” during an 1881 speech at Storer College in West Virginia (Blackmore, 2018). Douglass would devote the rest of his life to civil rights and equality.

In conclusion, Frederick Douglass and his newspaper, The North Star, were influential in the abolition movement. He is an example of human perseverance. To rise above his origins to achieve what he wanted. He worked hard, faced difficult opponents, and fought everything he had. He believed knowledge is the path to freedom. True freedom. He was correct. When knowledge is given and obtained, the possibilities are endless. The North Star would be an example of how words could be used to influence and forge change. Against all odds and critics, Douglass forged ahead to create his newspaper, to be a mouthpiece for freedom and equality.

 

References

 

Blackmore, Erin (December 4, 2018). Frederick Douglass’s Emotional Meeting With the Man Who Enslaved Him. History. www.history.com/news/frederick-douglass-meeting-former-master. Retrieved November 30, 2020.

 

Georgini, Sara (February 14, 2019). ‘The North Star’ Amplified Black Voices. How a 2019 Reboot of Frederick Douglass’ Paper Hopes to Do the Same. Smithsonian Magazine. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/frederick-douglass-north-star-amplified-black-voices-reboot-newspaper-hoping-do-same-180971500/. Retrieved November 30, 2020.

 

Staff Writer (August 12, 2013). Legacy and Significance of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass Heritage. www.frederick-douglass-heritage.org/legacy-significance/. Retrieved November 30, 2020.

 

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (November 11, 2016). The North Star. Encyclopaedia Britannica. www.britannica.com/topic/The-North-Star-American-newspaper. Retrieved November 30, 2020.

A brief look into Ableism, Lookism, and Tokenism

 Today’s news is filled with examples and stories of racism, sexism and even ageism to the point that everyone knows or familiar with racism, sexism, and ageism. There are many other  isms that function in the world around us. Have you heard about ableism? Lookism? Tokenism? I came across these terms in recent months and I was curious about what these terms mean and real-world examples. We are visual people and sometimes we make assumptions based on what we see. Assumption about someone’s physical health, personality, and including them in groups based on what we immediately see. These assumptions are usually made subconsciously and sometimes they are overt. Sometimes these assumptions are right and sometimes they are very, very wrong. Participation in these isms is sometimes more than just assumptions based on visual cues, but it is also in the language we use and our behavior towards people.

Ableism is “the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior” (Olsen, 2019). At its core, ableism is the assumption that people with disabilities require “fixing” or need help and defines people by their disabilities. What does ableism look like? There are many examples of ableism, I will highlight and discuss a few. First and an important one, ableism is a lack of compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a law enacted in 1990 which made it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities. Compliance includes the availability of closed captions at movie theaters and braille in public places. Second, using a disability as a punchline, mocking someone with a disability or using language that is used to insult another who does not have the disability. Some of the examples I have are phrases like “That’s so lame,” “She’s so crazy,” and even “The blind leading the blind.” Third, according to Ms. Olsen, ableism is using the handicapped bathroom stall when one is fully able. However, I have an issue with this one. In most public restrooms, especially in department stores, the handicapped bathroom is where they put the changing table. So, if I need to change my child’s diaper, I need to be in that stall. Also, if I need to use the restroom and it’s the only stall available, I will use it. Since many disabilities are invisible, do not assume someone who uses that stall doesn’t need it.

Lookism is discriminatory treatment of people who are considered physically unattractive, the workplace as well as in dating and social settings, where assumptions are made about a person’s ability to do a job or the type of person they are solely based on their outward appearance. Attractiveness is considered good and positive and unattractiveness is bad and negative. In the film, A League of Their Own (1992), the character, Marla, wasn’t chosen by the scout because she wasn’t pretty enough. She was only ultimately chosen because characters, Dottie and Kit, stand up for her and demand she be given the chance to play. A real-world example is the famous audition by Susan Boyle during the third season of Britain’s Got Talent. By his body language and tone of voice, Simon Cowell was already judging Ms. Boyle before she even began to sing. Of course, he was proven wrong as she beautifully sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical Les Misérables. However, when it comes to dating and sexual attractiveness, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have been rejected by men based on my looks. I was always a good person to have as a friend but not as a romantic partner until my husband. My husband had been rejected by women based on his physical looks as well giving him the idea that no woman would find him attractive. Society may try to define what is attractive, beautiful, and sexy but in the eyes of the right person, that definition can be quite different.

Recently I read an article about how a woman received a powerful position due to tokenism because of who her father is. Tokenism is the practice of making a symbolic effort to be inclusive by recruiting people from underrepresented groups to create an impression of social inclusiveness and diversity. So, by this definition, this woman got this job is more an example of nepotism which is the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends. Nepotism is nothing new in business and politics even as John F. Kennedy was accused of nepotism in 1961 when he appointed his brother, Robert Kennedy, as attorney general. Tokenism is most often seen in tv and movies. “Tokenism is about inserting diverse characters because you feel you have to” (Ferrera, 2016). Tokenism has been in the news and on social media today as actors are casted in roles that people assume because of their ethnicities. The example of this outrage is when Disney announced they had cast actress Halle Bailey as Ariel in their upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. Many people online commented that they (Disney) hired Ms. Bailey is simply because they needed a black girl. When I heard the news and the resulting outrage, I immediately thought of Disney’s adaption of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1997) with a multicultural cast. It was a good, fun film which received more praise then it received criticism. Disney wasn’t accused of tokenism then. So, what changed?

In conclusion, at their core, ableism, lookism, and tokenism is about trying to classify entire groups of people as “less than” or unworthy of mainstream societal standards. People with disabilities can go about their daily lives without an able person asserted themselves under the guise of assistance. If a people with a disability needs assistance, they will ask. Lookism is pushing aside people one judges to be unattractive by their own standards. Some men don’t like women with curves, but there are men who do. There are some women who resist a man with facial and or body hair, and there are some women who don’t. Tokenism is choosing someone based on their group classification rather than their ability to do a job. Ableism, lookism, and tokenism are based on assumptions. Assumptions based on visual cues, about motives, about causality. And you know what happens when we assume?

 

References

 

Ferrera, America (May 18, 2016). America Ferrera On Diversity In Film & TV: Guest Column. Deadline.com. www.deadline.com/2016/05/america-ferrera-diversity-superstore-1201752658/.  Retrieved September 19, 2020.

 

Olsen. Emma (December 12, 2019). Ableism 101. www.accessliving.org/newsroom/blog/ableism-101/. Access Living.com. Retrieved September 17, 2020.

 

For more information

Americans with Disabilities Act. www.ada.gov.

Jim Crow Laws: the origins, the laws and the fight back

As it is Black History Month, I decided to research more into the Jim Crow Laws. As a student, I had heard the term and the very basics of what they were, but I realize that I didn’t know anything beyond that. Named for a black minstrel character, Jim Crow Laws were a collection of state and local statutes which legalized racial segregation. These laws existed for about 100 years from the post-Civil War until 1968. What was the origins of the Jim Crow Laws? How were they expanded across the South and the nation? What helped bring the end of Jim Crow? And what type of Jim Crow laws were enforced in my home state of California?

Jim Crow Laws started as Black Codes as early as 1865 (Editors, 2018), which were strict laws detailing where and how the newly freed slaves could work and for how much. It was a legal way to put blacks back into an indentured servitude as their voting rights were essentially taken away, they were told where to live and how to travel. And since former Confederate soldiers were now serving as police officers and judges, there was no real legal recourse for the blacks to fight back (Editors, 2018). Jim Crow Laws started with restricting blacks from voting. They included literacy tests, poll taxes and a grandfather clause (Urofsky, 2019). The grandfather clause stated that men who were entitled to vote before 1867 and their lineal descendants were exempted from the literacy and other qualifications. Segregation didn’t begin immediately. Until 1877, New Orleans had fully integrated schools and North Carolina had blacks and whites serving on juries together (Urofsky, 2019). It didn’t truly begin until the Plessy v Ferguson (1896) which created the “separate but equal” standard.  From very early on, people were fighting back against Jim Crow Laws. Notably, Ida B Wells, who refused to leave a first-class train car designated for whites only (Editors, 2018). As well as Isaiah Montgomery who founded a black only town, Mound Bayou, Mississippi, in 1887. The town still is predominately black residents (Editors, 2018).

Jim Crow Laws would expand across the nation. Public parks would be forbidden for blacks to visit. Theaters, restaurants, waiting rooms, water fountains, restrooms, building entrances, even cemeteries would all become segregated (Editors, 2018). Some states would even require different textbooks for white and blacks students and different Bibles would be used to swear on in court (Editors, 2018). After WWI, lynchings and violence was on the rise. For several months in 1919, there were widespread race riots in the country. As black WWI vets were returning home and fighting back. “Between April and November of 1919, there would be approximately 25 riots and instances of mob violence, 97 recorded lynchings, and a three day long massacre in Elaine, Arkansas during which over 200 black men, women, and children were killed after black sharecroppers tried to organize for better working conditions” (Higgins, 2019). The Great Migration of the 1920s, as blacks were leaving the South, found Jim Crow Laws spreading to the North and Western states. In the North, suburban developments would not allow blacks to obtain mortgages for certain “red-lined” neighborhoods (Editors, 2018). As the country would fall into the Great Depression, racial tensions would only deepen.

The end of the Jim Crow Laws began with post-WWII and the Civil Rights Movement (late 1940s- late 1960s). In 1948, President Harry Truman would integrate the military. In 1954, the Supreme Court would rule in Brown v the Board of Education that the “separate but equal” standard was unconstitutional and would begin the national integration of schools. In 1964, President Johnson would sign the Civil Rights Act which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act would be passed, banning the use of literacy tests. In 1967, Loving v Virginia would end bans on interracial marriages. In 1968, the Fair Housing Acts ended discrimination in renting and housing sales (Editors, 2018). In 1971, the Supreme Court would uphold busing to insure integration of schools in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education.

California had many laws which restricted people based on race. California produced more legislation against Chinese and other Asian descents due to the massive Asian immigration. In 1850, California passed a statute which stated that “no black, mulatto person, or Indian, shall be allowed to give evidence in favor or, or against, a white man.” In 1854, the California Supreme Court would rule that this statute also included individuals of Chinese descent. Between 1866-1947, California would pass 17 Jim Crow laws including anti-miscegenation (interracial marriages), education and employment. In 1891, all Chinese people would be required to carry a “certificate of residency.” If they were caught without it, they could be arrested and jailed. It would be illegal for whites to marry blacks, mulattos or Asian descents. It is interesting to note Hispanics were not included in the anti-miscegenation laws because they were considered white due to their Spanish heritage. Anti-miscegenation laws would be overturned in California with Perez v Sharp (1948) in which Andrea Perez (a Mexican American woman) and Sylvester Davis (a black man) were denied a marriage license in Los Angeles County. This case was the first in the 20^th century to overturn anti-miscegenation laws. Chief Justice Warren would use this case as the basis for the Loving v Virginia decision.

In conclusion, Jim Crow Laws were a massive systemic discrimination against blacks and, by extension, other minorities. They were implicated slowly and gained prominence by the turn of the 20^th century as the denials of basic rights like voting, housing and education were ways to keep prominent powerful white majority in positions of authority. The fight against them had been early on but didn’t gain momentum until after WWII as black vets returned home and said enough is enough. The history of Jim Crow Laws and other laws should not be ignored or forgotten. As we celebrate Black History Month, let us remember these horrible laws as we try to find a balance and harmony among ourselves.

References

Editors (February 28, 2018). Jim Crow Laws. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws. Retrieved February 11, 2020.

Higgins, Abigail. (July 26, 2019). Red Summer of 1919: How Black WWI Vets Fought Back Against Racist Mobs. History.com. https://www.history.com/news/red-summer-1919-riots-chicago-dc-great-migration. Retrieved February 19, 2020.

Urofsky, Melvin I. (August 21, 2019). Jim Crow law UNITED STATES [1877-1954]. Britanncia.com. https://www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-law. Retrieved February 19, 2020.

A brief history of immigration discrimination in the United States

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddle masses yearning to be breathe free” 

The famous quote from Emma Lazarus is often used to describe America, the land of freedom and opportunity. However, that opportunity only applied if you were White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (aka WASP). Everyone is familiar with the discrimination and horrors that African Americans suffered as slaves and as citizens. And the atrocities that the US government inflicted on the Native Americans. Also, the internment of law-abiding Japanese-American citizens during World War II. These weren’t the only groups to be discriminated against. The Scot-Irish, Italians, Jewish and more recently Middle Easterners have suffered their share of discrimination too. Unfortunately, discrimination against immigrants has been a long standing practice in the United States. Every immigrant has met with discrimination in some form when coming to America and the immigration debate is nothing new in the United States.

In 1790, the United States was an infant. A new country with a new Constitution trying to establish itself as a country to be recognized among the nations. The Naturalization Act of 1790 was passed restricting citizenship to free Whites. In 1848, after the Mexican-American War, Congress refused to pass Article X of the Treaty of Guadalupe which promised citizenship to Mexicans who decided to stay in newly acquired American territories. Instead, it required Mexicans to prove in court, with a lawyer and in English that they has legitimate claims to their lands. In 1850, California passed the Foreign Miners Tax which imposed a special tax on the holdings of Chinese and Latin American miners. In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act which allowed US citizens to claim land in new territories; however, it barred Native Americans, Blacks, and any Non-European immigrant. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited Chinese immigration for 10 years and later banned in 1902. A ban which not be lifted until 1943.

Most of the immigration practices came into effect after the 20th century when the world opened up for many countries and they flooded to the U.S. The Immigration Act of 1924 closed the door on immigrants for Southern and Eastern Europeans while allowing immigrants from Britain, Ireland and other Northern Europe. Between 1930-1940, 600,000 Mexican Americans were deported. Many were legal citizens and in 1935, California passed a law which declared Mexicans as “foreign born Indians.” The US government would implement the Bracero Program which allowed Mexicans to come to the US for temporary work during the labor shortage in the war period. When the program officially ended in the 1960s, many Mexicans went home never being paid their promised wages. By 1952, immigration laws began to relax some restrictions but imposed new ones, such as a quota of immigrants from each nation and introduced guidelines for refugees. In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act criminalized employment of undocumented workers and by 1990, placed sanctions for employers who knowingly hired workers without the proper papers. I remember in 1994, my freshman year of high school, there was a major walk-out in protest of Proposition 187. Prop 187 set to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibited illegal immigrants from using health care, public education and other services in California. The proposition passed but was later found to be unconstitutional by a federal court.

The current debate is nothing new. The debate between restricting immigration to an open-door policy. What I find interesting is that two stereotypes still fuel the immigration debate. First, that immigrants are the cause of our societal problems. They take our jobs, they commit the majority of the crimes and they are just here for the benefits are often used as reasons for restricting immigration. With every stereotype there is a grain of truth; however, it is not true for all immigrants. Most immigrants take the jobs that majority of us wouldn’t take even if we were desperate. Most immigrants are as law abiding as citizens. And the benefits? Sure many immigrants may come here for the better health care but how hypocritical when many citizens will go to other countries to get surgeries and medicine that they can’t get here. Second, the modern day immigrants are nothing like the old immigrants. They weren’t here illegally, they were good, hard-working people and became good citizens. People don’t realize that majority of immigration laws weren’t in effect when most of our ancestors came to this country. And many of the immigrants who do come to this country illegally do become legal citizens. People forget that the United States is a country built by immigrants from the colonists in 1620 to 20th century business entrepreneurs. The following iconic businesses were founded by immigrants:
• Google: Sergry Brin from Russia
• AT&T: Alexander Graham Bell from Scotland
• Goldman Sachs: Marcus Goldman from Germany
• Kohl’s: Maxwell Kohl from Poland
• Big Lots: Sol Shenk from Russia
• Goya Foods: Prudencio and Carolina Unanue from Spain
• Yahoo!: Jerry Yang from Taiwan
• And countless mom-n- pop shops and restaurants that we enjoy every day.

What’s my point? My point is that the people of the United States have struggled with immigration since the beginning and discrimination often fueled the immigration laws. The immigration debate is very complicated and has deep roots that will take a long time to untangle. There are no simple solutions and I can’t begin to offer a solution. It is a situation when a compromise needs to be met in a country which no longer wants to cooperate with each other. A quote from a character on a NCIS episode once observed “Short memories. That is the impression I have of you as a people.” We, as citizens of the US, have short memories. How soon we forget with time and how we forget the lessons of the past. In order to move forward, we need to look back and strive not to repeat the mistakes of the past. We must find solutions which allows those who want to come to America to build a new life are able to. Just as our ancestors did. We need to stand by the words which are proudly displayed on the Statue of Liberty.

The Immigrant: the untold story of an indentured servant

The Immigrant by Alfred Woollacott III is a story of his ancestor, John Law, who under circumstances beyond his control, was brought to America. It is a story of survival against all odds, against prejudice and discrimination. It is story of how one man’s strength to survive influenced the generations that came after him.

The story opens in 1775, Reuben Law is in the midst of the opening battles of the American Revolution. While marching away from Concord, Massachusetts, he thinks about the stories of his great grandfather. The reader is then transported to Doon Hill, Dunbar Scotland in 1650, where 14 year old John Law is fighting in the Scottish Royal Army against the English. He is captured and taken to London where John is sold as an indentured servant and sent to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. When he arrives, he is met with prejudice and discrimination as he tries to learn this strange new land. When his indenture is over, he is given a parcel of land, which he calls New Scotland, and builds a home. He makes friends with the Indians who teach him about the land. He catches the eye of a local Puritan girl named Lydia Draper and dispute ridicule and social shunning, they marry and start a family on the farm against the struggles of nature and political strife.

I really enjoyed this story because it is full of history and shows the ugly side of early American history. The hostility and discrimination that was such a part of America then, simply because John Law was Scottish, he was not to be trusted. It also shows the strength of one man to overcome this treatment and gain the respect of a number of his community, even though some never do. The book covers major historical events with vivid detail from the Battle of Dunbar to King Philip’s War to the American Revolution. If you want a book which details a story so often untold, I highly recommend The Immigrant.

The Immigrant by Alfred Woollacott III

is available on Amazon

in paperback for $15.99 and

subscribers of Kindle Unlimited for free.