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The Personal History of Rachel Dupree A Novel Ann Weisgarber Books

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The Personal History of Rachel Dupree A Novel Ann Weisgarber Books

Amazing author, amazing writing, amazing story, setting and characters. Ann Weisgarber is my new favorite author. It was a privilege to read the personal history of Rachel DuPree. She was a black woman living in the late 1800's to early 1900's. Her story takes her from hard work in a Chicago boarding house to even harder work in the South Dakota Badlands. She is married to a former black soldier who had fought the Indians in the west. He is obsessed with acquiring land even if it means more hardship and doing without things for his family. Over and over you are reminded that he believes that owning land is the only way a black man can gain respect even in the Badlands. He is a hard worker and a stubborn man.
Meanwhile Rachel works and works in the worst circumstances you can imagine-all while having one baby after another-working till the day of births. She is a strong woman but her heart is cold then warm and back again from sheer exhaustion and constant worry for her children and husband.
I know now why the Badlands are called that...harsh weather seemed a constant...extreme drought, heat, strong unrelenting dusty winds, deluges of rain turning rivers and land into foot deep mud, foot after foot of snow.
There are layers of racism in this book...Native Americans, blacks against different color or shade of black skin and the amount of education and money they have and even if they were from the south. Whites did not play much in this book but there is a hint of white racism too. The saving grace is that life is so unrelenting in the Badlands that that racism and differences are erased when people need each other.
I loved this book and would recommend to all who like good fiction and like to be taken to exotic places with their reading.


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The Personal History of Rachel Dupree A Novel Ann Weisgarber Books Reviews

History involving the Homestead Act was a lure for people to settle the Dakotas, Wyoming, Nebraska and other frontiers. Rachel DuPree wanted more than she would ever be able to achieve or acquire with city life in Chicago. Under a loosely defined agreement -- contract, covenant -- she and Isaac DuPree tackled the West with less than a romantic attraction but more of a promise of a growing investment. Their physical arrangement produced 7 living children who were valued by Isaac as an ongoing supply of farmhands. Rachel wanted a softer side to her life that was not possible with limited neighbors, a day's travel into town and the mystique of Indians on reservations. Material gain, community reputation, a looming past of war and disrespect led Rachel and Isaac DuPree to address the hard life of frontier living.

You can feel Isaac's desire to achieve community respect; take care of and provide for his family; and create and maintain a DuPree legacy. You can feel Rachel's need for female interaction; for events to establish social decorum; and a lessening of the frontier hardships that steal life.
What a powerful and artful telling of a woman's struggle to save her children, to fight for the vision she had for their futures and, though not said directly, to believe in herself. It was heartbreaking to read about the back breaking life this family led, but somewhat uplifting to also understand the strength of family unity. Rachel is written in such a way that we see her develop into an amazingly determined character. I enjoyed this book VERY, VERY much and I recommend it to anyone who likes reading stories about an individual's ability to overcome a bad decision, a hard life, tragedies, and low self-esteem.
An unforgettable, gut-wrenching novel about an early nineteen- hundreds African American family trying to establish themselves in the South Dakota Badlands. Isaac DuPree was an ex-Army man whose mother ran a boardinghouse in Chicago. Rachel worked for his mother as a cook in the boardinghouse. She fell in love with Isaac and would do anything to leave her going-nowhere life. Knowing Isaac wanted to start a ranch on land that the government was promising to homesteaders, she made a bargain with him take her as wife and she would claim land, and he would claim land, and he could begin his ranch with double the amount of land he would have had if he were unmarried. Isaac is ambitious, so he takes the deal. Years later, Rachel is close to birthing 8 children (2 of whom have died), she's worn out, there's a drought and her children are hungry and thirsty but Isaac is still land hungry and thinking of acquiring more land. Seeing death for her children in the future, Rachel has to make a decision, stay in this horrible land that's killing her children, or leave Isaac. Which will she do?
Amazing author, amazing writing, amazing story, setting and characters. Ann Weisgarber is my new favorite author. It was a privilege to read the personal history of Rachel DuPree. She was a black woman living in the late 1800's to early 1900's. Her story takes her from hard work in a Chicago boarding house to even harder work in the South Dakota Badlands. She is married to a former black soldier who had fought the Indians in the west. He is obsessed with acquiring land even if it means more hardship and doing without things for his family. Over and over you are reminded that he believes that owning land is the only way a black man can gain respect even in the Badlands. He is a hard worker and a stubborn man.
Meanwhile Rachel works and works in the worst circumstances you can imagine-all while having one baby after another-working till the day of births. She is a strong woman but her heart is cold then warm and back again from sheer exhaustion and constant worry for her children and husband.
I know now why the Badlands are called that...harsh weather seemed a constant...extreme drought, heat, strong unrelenting dusty winds, deluges of rain turning rivers and land into foot deep mud, foot after foot of snow.
There are layers of racism in this book...Native Americans, blacks against different color or shade of black skin and the amount of education and money they have and even if they were from the south. Whites did not play much in this book but there is a hint of white racism too. The saving grace is that life is so unrelenting in the Badlands that that racism and differences are erased when people need each other.
I loved this book and would recommend to all who like good fiction and like to be taken to exotic places with their reading.