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The Daughter of Union County: A Novel Paperback – August 1, 2016

3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 7,577 ratings
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A mother’s devotion. A daughter’s search for identity. This is a heartbreaking and hopeful novel of love, class, and race set against the backdrop of the post–Civil War South.

In the late nineteenth-century South, Margaret Hardin has been raised with the advantages befitting her titled parents in the finest house in Arkansas. Unknown to the light-skinned, blue-eyed girl, she’s been born into a secret. Though her father―a man desperate to produce an heir―is white, Margaret’s real mother, a woman named Salome, is black. As the years go by, Margaret’s hidden history allows her to pass into a world of privilege. When the truth of her ancestry is revealed, she is confronted by a father who’ll risk anything to protect his legacy and embraced by Salome, who is determined to reclaim the child she loves. It’s a pivotal point for Margaret―as well as for the generations that will follow.

Spanning decades, this unforgettable saga illuminates the empowering struggle of race and reinvention, of loyalty and family, and of finding your identity and the true freedom that comes with it.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    433 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    August 1, 2016
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1503937321
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1503937321
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Francine Thomas Howard is the author of The Daughter of Union County, Page from a Tennessee Journal, and Paris Noire. A descendant of an enslaved African, Howard writes stories that explore the multicultural legacy of African-descended people throughout the diaspora and reflect her own African, European, and Native American heritage. Raised in San Francisco, Howard earned a BA in occupational therapy from San José State and an MPA from the University of San Francisco. She left a rewarding career in pediatric occupational therapy to pursue another love: writing. Desiring to preserve the remarkable oral histories of her family tree, she began writing down those stories with little thought of publication. That all changed when she turned a family secret about her grandparents into Page from a Tennessee Journal. Francine Thomas Howard resides with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information visit www.francinethomashoward.wordpress.com.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lake Union Publishing (August 1, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 433 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1503937321
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1503937321
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 7,577 ratings

About the author

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Francine Thomas Howard

Francine Thomas Howard

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Francine Thomas Howard resides with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally from Illinois, she has lived in the Bay Area since childhood. Howard left a rewarding career in pediatric occupational therapy to pursue her first love, writing. Her first novel, Page From a Tennessee Journal, was published in 2010.

Howard's latest, The Daughter of Union County, was selected to be a Kindle First title in July 2016.

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
7,577 global ratings
Good reading
5 Stars
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Enjoyed reading this book reminds me a lot of the composition of my family.
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Top reviews from the United States

DLLawrence
5.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT A ONE STAR BOOK
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2016
Verified Purchase
I completely disagree with the first one star review. Complainimg about 'cliches' was nothing more, and it was so apparent, than the reviewers own politically correctness coloring her judgment.

My husband's family, I'm ashamed to admit, obtained their land in Louisiana prior to statehood. Their descendants still own portions of it today. The plantation house is on the state historical registry, preserved for future generations. As one who has read the old diaries of the wives of slave owner, these 'cliches' are scattered throughout. There are, in Louisiana, two family lines with the same very prominent last name, one descended from the white slavers and on from black descendants. The insistence on being referred to as Lord and Lady, by some slave owners was not at all uncommon. Yes, the character that reviewer complains about, May have come from the northern states but he was a white man who certainly had no ancestral claims to being an American.any of these men were descendant from the Brittish. Since my husband's family recorded every ancestor and to this day keeps an updated genealogy, the character certainly would have known who his ancestors were.

As fir the maintaining of Burkes, why would a plantation owner,Amy generations removed not embellish on his activities, why should we expect him to know Brooks from Burkes? To me, this lent a flavor of authenticity.

Finally, this was a very well written, entertaining novel. This author worked extremely hard to produce a readable and memorable WORK, emphasis on the word, work. To give a one star rating based primarily upon the authors use of common vernacular during the period in question was undeserved and downright mean. Further it demonstrates how the insane politically correct expectations of some people extends even to literature. If all works used such terminology and abandoned historically accurate manners of speech there would be no point in reading HISTORICAL FICTION, or non FICTION for that matter.

Please ignore that ridiculous one star rating and enjoy your book. The book didn't deserve it and neither did the author.

I am addicted to historical fiction. I thought this book deserved six stars but I had to settle for five.
250 people found this helpful
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A Funny Girl
4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Read
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2016
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I've recently started reading a lot of historical fiction. While I know that the stories aren't always 100% historically accurate, I find that it's interesting to be transported to another time and place, to experience another world that only reading a book can allow you to do.

I've watched movies like Selma and other similar movies about racial tensions. I have to say though, I've never felt so connected emotionally to the struggle that those living through the civil war and before integration had to endure. This wasn't the best written novel, however, if you can get over some of the awkwardness and just be transported with the story, it really was eye opening for me.

The story centers around Henry & Bertha Hardin. They are descendants of an English aristocratic title, the oldest aristocratic family. The time is fourteen years after civil war and it's set in Arkansas where racial tensions were still very much alive and present. Lady Bertha has had four miscarriages, her last miscarriage only having been a month previously. Whilst she's upstairs emotionally drained and still grieving the loss of another child, downstairs one of the servants is giving birth to her own child.

Salome, who has lived on the Hardin estate her whole life was the product of rape by the hands of the overseer on the property. Her mother refused to look after her. Now, she finds herself about to give birth to Lord Henry Hardin's illegitimate child. Henry is beside himself with worry over both child and mother's health, he breaks all rules and enters the birthing room when Salome refuses to push, she wants to die and wants the child inside her to die as well. Henry is able to get Salome to push the life inside of her out. Salome, like her mother before her, wants nothing to do with the child.

The servants are worried about something and Henry Hardin is beside himself with worry over the health of his living child. When he realizes that it's the color of her skin at the heart of their concern a plan forms in his mind. This child, his daughter, has white skin and blue eyes. The only characteristic that she is a colored child is a little kinkiness to her hair. He rushes upstairs to his wife's bedside and sets forth his plan, his wife is less than thrilled at this preposterous plan but goes along unwillingly with passing off this child as their own. She will be raised as a white child.

The story follows Lady Margaret and her upbringing as a white girl and the struggles she will face when whispers of her colored history emerges. It's not a pretty story. There are some definite cringeworthy moments, but it turns your stomach to see how people could be so ill treated on the basis of the color of their skin.

Salome is a silent force in this saga and shows great spirit and resolve. Standing on the sidelines and being made to be her own child's servant and watching her other children be treated no better than colored helper's. But she's a true mother through and through and only wishes the best for all of her children.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I never once got bored and found myself not wanting to put it down until I had devoured every last word.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Marcel Metcalfe
1.0 out of 5 stars Boring
Reviewed in Canada on March 9, 2021
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I didn't like.
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margaret glover
1.0 out of 5 stars Dreadful!
Reviewed in Germany on September 22, 2019
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Story not credible. Best avoided.
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scott joplin
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2016
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Wonderful book. I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline and became familiar very quickly with the characters. What an insight into the treatment of the white nobility and the black servants. I liked the way the language was used and flowed and could "hear" the characters speaking. There was no wasting of sentences such as " she was wearing a white dress and red shoes" as we are so often familiar with. I certainly recommend this book and will now look for others by the same author.
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Jomac
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting.
Reviewed in Australia on July 30, 2016
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Interesting read, historically eyeopening.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars unfinished sentences became really annoying. It was a total waste of precious reading ...
Reviewed in Canada on October 6, 2017
Verified Purchase
Absolutely DREADFUL! Weak plot, thin characters . . . .the dangling, unfinished sentences became really annoying. It was a total waste of precious reading time.
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