Karen Gives Rave Review to Joy’s Book

By: Karen Zach

Bit of a twist on my column this week.  Hope you enjoy!  Well, as my readers probably figured, I read mainly nonfiction; however, I do love to read fiction if it’s historical fiction and the background is well researched.  Our Montgomery Memories writer, Joy Willett (pseudonym, JM Jacob) wrote Going Home.  I got to read it during the writing and served as a proofreader and she recently sent me a completed version.  I was impressed with her revisions. For instance, I told her she needed the son in it more and sure enough, he popped in there another time or two. 

I complimented her on the beautiful cover and she said that’s her niece – such a beautiful girl and that would be pretty exciting to be on the cover of a book.

Main character, Izzy was a slave, half white, beautiful and raised by Mama who loved her like a daughter but her real mother passed at Izzy’s birth.  Izzy grew-up on the Jasper plantation and Mama was determined to keep Izzy away from the tobacco fields. That she did until Izzy made a crucial mistake and was sent out to pick in the fields.  One of my favorite parts of the book then showed the enormity of tobacco fever. 

I myself only know of two of my ancestors who owned slaves.  One was Henry Sater born in Westbourne, England, came to Chestnut Ridge, (Baltimore County) Maryland and married Dorcas Towson.  He built the first Baptist Church in Maryland which was still standing just a few years ago when I was lucky to see it.  His slaves all had nice, small cabins where they lived and went to the Baptist Church with Henry and Dorcas.  He treated them well in the mid 1700s.  The other ancestor was more recent, William Thomas Morgan born in Kentucky County, Virginia 1766 and passed in Bath County, Kentucky in 1850.  Married Sarah Cunningham who rode her horse alone at age 83 to see her family in Parke County. She passed shortly after arriving.  William served as sheriff for 20 years and 13 years before his passing he emancipated his man “Gabriel” as he did not believe in slavery.

Izzy, however, was not so lucky and bad things were coming her way when she decided her only option was to flee.  Hating to leave Mama, her fellow she was to marry and other friends, she knew it was the only choice!  Off she went.  She soon met an Indian warrior who befriended her.  Love the interaction between the two.  It was to be a marriage but then something personal was discovered about Izzy and  Onacona traded her to quite an unlikely in the form of a red-headed Scotsman. 

Love was finally found by this young woman and much of the rest of the story shows this as one of the most amazing love stories ever.  What he would do for her was non-stop.  Their love for their two children was non-stop.  Her love for him was non-stop and the story just keeps getting better.  Many people, mostly good, a few bad are met by this interesting pair and their children as they live in Kentucky for some time then on to Southern Indiana.  At the end of the story we finally discover what the African words Izzy said every night meant and she passes her mother’s beads on to another she dearly loved! 

If you’re interested you can order it via Amazon here — https://www.amazon.com/s?k=going+home+j.+m.+jacob&crid=389NBV3UV05DP&sprefix=%2Caps%2C148&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_2_0_recent

Certainly, it is a Great story!  Going Home by JM Jacob.  I loved it.  When I can learn something about history, I’m all for it and I really enjoyed how Joy intertwined the Indian language and the English language together and complimenting each other, plus I loved learning about the osnaburg skirt and beehive oven. Historical stories  are exceptional if you learn something new about history and if you feel like you knew the main characters.  Joy accomplished both!                                                    

Karen Zach is the editor of Montgomery Memories, our monthly magazine all about Montgomery County. Her column, Around the County, appears Fridays in The Paper of Montgomery County. You can reach her at [email protected].