Introduction

The bestselling author of Yellow Crocus returns with a haunting and tender story of three women returning to the plantation they once called home.

Oberlin, Ohio, 1868. Lisbeth Johnson was born into privilege in the antebellum South. Jordan Freedman was born a slave to Mattie, Lisbeth’s beloved nurse. The women have an unlikely bond deeper than friendship. Three years after the Civil War, Lisbeth and Mattie are tending their homes and families while Jordan, an aspiring suffragette, teaches at an integrated school.

When Lisbeth discovers that her father is dying, she’s summoned back to the Virginia plantation where she grew up. There she must face the Confederate family she betrayed by marrying an abolitionist. Jordan and Mattie return to Fair Oaks, too, to save the family they left behind, who still toil in oppression. For Lisbeth, it’s a time for reconciliation. For Jordan and Mattie, it’s time for liberation.

As the Johnsons and Freedmans confront the injustice that binds them, as well as the bitterness and violence that seethes at its heart, the women must find the courage to free their families—and themselves—from the past.

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Excerpt

Prologue

Jordan

1868

Teachers are not supposed to have favorites, but I do. On the first day of the term last fall little Sadie Johnson slipped her hand into mine, looked straight at me with her bright blue eyes and declared with a slight lisp, “It’s my first day too.” My affection for that sweet White girl took root and only grew through the school year.

Mama says I feel special kinship with her because she’s Lisbeth’s daughter, but I disagree —I hardly know the woman. Once a year she arrives with a basket of holiday treats for our family. She and Mama catch up for a bit and hug long and hard before she leaves our life until the next Christmas. Mama says Lisbeth’s affection was written into my soul before I had words or thoughts, but I think Mama is speaking for herself, not for me.

Lisbeth and Mama were special to each other before. I know about before only from stories. The tales of the quarters, the big house, and the fields are like Greek myths to me. I was only a baby when Mama carried me off of the plantation to join Pops and Samuel in Oberlin. I consider myself a freed slave, but Mama never lets me forget that we were all enslaved once, whether I like it or not. They gave me a last name that doesn't let me or the world forget it either: Freedman.

My parents are proud of their history—as they should be. I’m grateful for all that they have given to me, truly I am; however they do not understand me and I do not believe they ever can. The gulf between our lives is simply too enormous.

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Chapter 1

Lisbeth

Oberlin, Ohio

Summer, 1868

Lisbeth’s hands were mixing biscuit dough for supper when Matthew walked into the kitchen with the envelope. Mother’s precise handwriting jumped out at her from the white paper. She didn’t break her rhythm or comment, but her body jumped to alert like a rabbit sensing a fox.

Matthew pecked her on the cheek from behind. Then he greeted Sadie, shelling peas at the plain wooden table, swinging her out of her chair into a huge hug that pulled her off the ground.

Lisbeth smiled. Matthew’s affection for their children never failed to touch her heart. Her mother could not possibly understand the deep pleasure Lisbeth took in the daily routines of domestic life and the love of her family. The warmth in their cozy home in Ohio was so very different from Lisbeth’s childhood home, the Fair Oaks plantation in Virginia.

Matthew held up Mother’s letter. “Would you like to read it now?”

Lisbeth waved her sticky fingers and shook her head. “Would you, please?”

As he sliced open the envelope, Lisbeth steeled herself for unpleasant commentary disguised as polite news. Ever the ‘lady,’ Mother did not write anything that Miss Taylor, the comportment instructor of Lisbeth’s youth, could criticize, but she never failed to point out the ways that Lisbeth’s life was lacking: in financial wealth, social standing, and sophistication.

In the 10 years since Lisbeth had fled Virginia, Mother wrote nearly every month, but she had not once visited Ohio. Not after Sammy, her first grandson, was born in 1859 nor after Sadie’s birth two years later. Lisbeth had hoped she would be willing to travel once the conflict between the states was over, but her parents had disappointed her by ignoring each of her invitations in the three years since the ending of the war. And Mother had not extended an invitation to them.

In his calm voice Matthew read out loud:

Dearest Elizabeth and family,

I hope this finds you well. I imagine you are readying yourselves for the harvest. That is a simple pleasure in life that has been taken from me as I continue to mourn for my lost home.

You will be happy to know that Mary Bartley welcomed another son. After two daughters in a row they are delighted. Do not let it weigh on your heart that God has blessed them with five children. I’m sure His plan for you has a reason and a purpose.

Jack’s son had a fever last week. Johnny is still in bed, but is expected to make a full recovery. He has missed many days of instruction, but since he is as bright as his father I’m sure he will make it up in no time.

Your father is ill and is not expected to live into the New Year. It is only right for you to see him one last time to seek his forgiveness and help me with preparations. Let me know when to expect you.

Regards,

Mother

Stunned, Lisbeth collapsed into the chair across the table from Sadie. A swirl of emotion surged in her chest.

Over the years she had pushed down the hurt from her parents’ rejection. She’d accepted that they would have a relationship only over correspondence and had not expected to ever have an in person visit with them again.

Yet in her heart she longed to see them again, to make peace, and perhaps cultivate some true affection. Her choice had caused them harm—she knew that—and she could apologize for that, and they might offer forgiveness and blessings. This would be her final chance with her father, if it wasn’t too late already, and maybe her only chance with her mother.

Matthew’s tanned white hand tenderly covered her sticky pale fingers. “You must go,” he insisted though kindly.

“I would be gone for weeks, perhaps months—what about the harvest?” Lisbeth asked.

“I can manage without you,” Matthew replied. “He’s your father. You would not regret being with him at the end.”

“But he is nothing to me. He has not bothered himself to write me a letter.” Her voice cracked and tears pushed at the back of her eyes, her body contradicting her words. She tried to as if she did not feel the sting of her father’s disinterest, but in truth it hurt.

Matthew stared at her, clearly choosing his words carefully, intensity in his eyes, “Any dream of moving past our wounds, past our warfare, will only come through forgiveness. The north and the south cannot be irreparably divided—whether family to family or state to state.”

“I had resigned myself to never stepping foot in Virginia again,” Lisbeth said.

“Even if you do not get the reconciliation you desire, you will know you have done your duty as a faithful daughter.”

Lisbeth exhaled sharply and nodded.

Sadie perked up and her bright eyes sparkled with excitement. “You’re visiting Grandmother and Grandfather Wainwright!? Can Sammy and I come too? To Virginia!?”

Lisbeth hadn’t realized her daughter was following their conversation. She considered the girl’s question.

Matthew spoke up before she formulated an answer: “Sadie, your mother has just been delivered sobering news. Give Momma time, and then we will make a plan.”

“Yes, sir,” the girl agreed, leaning back in the chair, “but I very much want to meet Grandmother and Grandfather Wainwright. And Uncle Jack. And my cousin Johnny! Don’t you think Grandfather wants to meet me? And Sammy?”

Lisbeth heart swelled. She wished she shared her daughter’s certainty that she would be warmly welcomed by her family. Sadie had a romantic notion of her Wainwright grandparents, imagining them to be as warm and gracious as Granny and Poppy, the grandparents who had made an effort to visit them in Oberlin—Matthew’s parents.

Lisbeth sidestepped Sadie’s naive question. “My father met your brother once, when I visited before the war,.”

“He was just a baby, babies can’t do anything,” Sadie explained. “Now Sammy is 9 and can teach them all about baseball. And playing cards!”

Matthew laughed.

“I agree that your brother is much more interesting now than he was when we last visited,” Lisbeth replied, “though babies are a blessing even if they can’t much.”

“Do they hate us because we are for the Union?” her daughter asked, worry furrowing her usually smooth brow.

Lisbeth sighed at the question. How could she possibly explain the complexity of her relationship with her parents to a six-year-old? They’d run her out of their home when she told them that she had eloped with Matthew Johnson rather than wed the suitor they had chosen for her. She’d utterly betrayed them by choosing to marry an abolitionist and move to Ohio instead of becoming the mistress of White Pines, a large Virginia tobacco plantation. Lisbeth looked at Matthew, hoping he had a reply, but he just gave a slight shrug.

“Hate is a very strong word,” Lisbeth stated more clearly than she felt. “Your grandparents do not hate us. Though they are unhappy with the outcome of the war.”

“Will we see slaves?!” the little girl asked with wide eyes.

“Slavery is over, Sadie,” Lisbeth said. “It’s a shameful part of the past, but is no longer a stain on our country. Do you understand?”

“Yes’m,” her curious child agreed, but then pushed on, intrigue in her voice: “But you saw slaves when you lived in Virginia?”

Lisbeth nodded. The children knew that both of their families had slaves, but she and Matthew had avoided telling the children that her family owned a plantation that profited off of the labor of nearly 100 enslaved people who worked the fields. They believed it would cause pain for no purpose, and Lisbeth feared that they would lose respect for her if they knew the whole truth about her childhood while they were too young to put it in perspective.

“And you, Poppa?” Sadie asked.

“Yes, every home had slaves,” Matthew replied.

“Many homes,” Lisbeth gently corrected her husband. “Not all.”

“Slaves didn’t have slaves, did they?” Sadie asked.

Matthew and Lisbeth laughed.

Lisbeth said, “No, slaves did not have slaves.”

“But some Negroes had slaves,” Matthew explained.

Sadie looked at her father in utter disbelief, her eyebrows pulled down and her mouth crunched up.

“It’s strange, but true,” Matthew confirmed.

“Your parents had slaves,” Sadie pointed to Matthew, “but they aren’t mad that there’s no more slavery. And your parents had slaves,” Sadie pointed to Lisbeth,” but they are mad that there’s no slaves anymore.”

“Correct,” Matthew replied, then looked at Lisbeth. This was a difficult conversation to have with Sadie. They hoped to protect her from the cruelties of the world as long as possible, but they also cherished being forthright with their children.

“There’s people that used to be slaves still living in Virginia, right? If I get to go, I’ll see some,” she declared, excitement filling her voice.

Lisbeth was taken aback by her daughter’s attitude. “Sadie, there is nothing to celebrate about the cruel treatment of other people.”

Sadie nodded earnestly.

Her child would have been surprised to learn that the very chair she was sitting on and the table she was working at were made by former slaves. Sadie knew Emmanuel and Samuel Freedman, the woodworkers who crafted this table. But she didn’t know that Lisbeth and Samuel knew one another as children. Until he escaped when he was 10 years old, Samuel had been forced to work on the plantation owned by Lisbeth’s father.

Each winter Sadie accompanied Lisbeth to deliver a Christmas package to the Freedmans, believing it to be a thank-you to Samuel’s mother, Mattie, the midwife who had delivered Sammy and Sadie. But Lisbeth brought the basket in gratitude for so much more.

Mattie had been Lisbeth’s nurse from the moment of her birth until Lisbeth was 12 years old. As a child Lisbeth was utterly devoted to Mattie, feeling more connected to her than to her own mother. Jordan, Mattie’s daughter, was the first baby Lisbeth had ever loved. Lisbeth doted on her in the afternoons whenever she could get away from her lessons. When Mattie took Jordan and escaped from bondage, Lisbeth lost the two people she loved the most. Her life had been irrevocably turned upside down in an instant. That they both ended up in Oberlin, Ohio, was not entirely a coincidence, as many forward-thinking people chose to make this progressive community their home before and after the war. Their lives did not intersect often in Oberlin, but Lisbeth was forever grateful for Mattie’s love and guidance that had shaped her into the woman she had become.

Sadie had no idea that their church and her school were unusual in their mingling of the races and the roles of women. For her it was normal to have a Colored teacher and classmates of every hue. Jordan Freedman stared teaching last fall— the same year that Sadie began her schooling. Lisbeth was amused and delighted at the strange turn of events that caused her daughter to admire Mattie’s daughter so very much.

“Will we get to stay with Granny and Poppy too when we go to Virginia?” Sadie asked about her beloved grandparents who had visited them more than once.

“I will be sure to see them when I go, but we have not agreed that you or your brother will be coming with me,” Lisbeth told her daughter, but in her heart she knew that it was time for both of her children to meet her parents, despite the confusing and painful truth they might learn about her past.

#

An hour into their first train ride ever, Lisbeth’s pulse was returning to normal. The blur of scenery outside the window was so dizzying that she had pulled down the wooden shutter, much to her children’s disappointment. She desperately needed a pause from the stimulation. The car was overly warm, but she didn’t wish to open the window because of the deafening noise and the bits of soot that flew in. One passenger, sitting just a few seats in front of them, had a hole burned into her traveling gown when a spark from the engine landed on her before it had fully extinguished.

The interior of the train car was cheery with shiny crimson paint that perfectly matched the velvet-covered benches and made a lovely contrast with the yellow upholstered ceiling and bright yellow shutters. Currently the car was nearly filled to capacity, but the number of riders changed at every stop. They were surrounded mostly by men, but Lisbeth was not the only unaccompanied woman.

Matthew assured her this was a safe form of transportation, but it seemed unbelievable that traveling 40 miles per hour wasn’t harmful to their health. By the miracle of this modern invention, the 500 mile trek from Columbus, Ohio to Washington, D.C. on the B & O railroad would take less than 20 hours. She had never traveled this far without Matthew and hoped that they would not run into any unforeseen difficulties that she could not handle on her own. She wanted to appear confident to her children, and took comfort in their company, but she continued to question the wisdom of bringing Sammy and Sadie on this journey.

They were scheduled to arrive at the capital before dark. In Washington D.C. they would stay in a hotel for the night and then travel the following day on the Richmond and Potomac line to Richmond, Virginia to her parents’ new home.

In reality it wasn’t a very new home for them. They’d been living there since being forced to sell Fair Oaks eight years earlier. When Lisbeth had made the decision to escape from the plantation, she didn’t consider that the family she left behind might be shunned by their neighbors, causing them enormous financial hardship. She had entirely overestimated her parents’ place in society and underestimated the cruelty of the Cunninghams, the family she’d nearly married into. Lisbeth never regretted her choice to leave, but she felt shame for the harm she brought upon her parents and her brother Jack.

Sammy was bent over, his brown hair practically touching the pages, reading a printed brochure he picked up at the train station. “Did you know that the Baltimore and Ohio railroad provided transportation for Union soldiers during the war?” he asked. Without waiting for an answer he continued, “It was raided by the Confederacy a bunch of times! Bridges were blown up, and then had to be rebuilt.” He looked up and out the window. “I wonder if we will be riding over some of the new bridges.”

Despite herself, Lisbeth smiled at her son’s enthusiasm. For him the battles were like a grand story, but she was painfully aware of the human cost to the war. It had been taxing to have Matthew away for months, fighting for the Union while she tended to their small farm. She had lived in constant fear while he was soldiering, but had done her best to shelter her children from her anxiety, carrying on as if it were but an adventure. Matthew returned home with all of his limbs and only a small cloud over his spirit. So many families were not as fortunate. Too many were devastated by the conflict, their men coming home beaten down in body or soul, or never returning at all. When a man simply disappeared and the family members never learned the circumstances, it was especially haunting.

Lisbeth had been wrestling with how to bring up a difficult subject, but she had to address it before they arrived. “Sammy and Sadie, I have a request,” she began. Sammy’s hazel eyes and Sadie’s blue ones jumped to her. “Do not mention the war when we are in Richmond. It is a disturbing topic that will be painful to our family. Please do not speak of it.”

They nodded. Sammy asked, “Uncle Jack was a Union prisoner, wasn’t he?”

“Yes. It cannot have been pleasant. And Aunt Julianne lost her father and two brothers. As you can imagine they are not very sympathetic to our cause.”

Sadie's eyes got big. “Did Poppa kill them?”

Lisbeth took a deep breath. “No. The 150th infantry defended Washington D.C. Poppa was not stationed near her home. As far as I know, her father and brothers were killed in North Carolina.”

“She must be very sad,” Sadie said.

Lisbeth nodded in agreement. “One never gets over a loss such as that. You simply learn to live with the ache.”

“We’ll meet our auntie, won’t we?” Sadie asked.

“Uncle Jack, Aunt Julianne, and Cousin Johnny live with Grandmother and Grandfather Wainwright,” Lisbeth explained. “We will be staying with all of them.”

“Is their house grand?” Sammy asked.

“I haven’t ever been there,” Lisbeth replied “so I can’t say, but I know they have servants’ quarters as well as room for us, so it must be quite large, though Mother describes it as cramped.”

“Why did they leave the home you grew up in?” Sammy asked.

Once again Lisbeth wrestled to find an honest, but discrete answer.

She spoke carefully. “You know that I did not marry the man my parents chose for me. When I went to Ohio with your father, it was like I chose to be on another team.”

“The Union team?” Sammy wondered.

“I didn’t realize there would be a war when I left,” Lisbeth explained to her children, “and that we’d be on different sides, but yes, that’s essentially what happened. They are angry for all that they lost, and blame me. They became bitter and scared.”

“Why is it your fault?” Sammy asked.

Lisbeth took a deep breath. It was hard to put into words. Her son stared at her, waiting for an answer.

“I said ‘yes’ to an engagement to a man named Edward Cunningham, which is a promise to get married. When I broke that promise everyone shunned the family I left behind in Virginia.”

“What’s shunned?” Sadie asked.

“Their neighbors ignored them, wouldn’t buy or sell from them or invite them to parties. Your Uncle Jack lost all of his friends.”

Sadie’s mouth turned down in empathy. “Poor Uncle Jack. He must have been very sad.”

Lisbeth nodded in agreement. It was hard to admit to her children that her choice hurt her brother.

“You broke a promise?” Sammy looked like he’d learned a precious secret about his mother. Her lessons about keeping your word had sunk in.

Edward’s traumatic betrayal was something she avoided speaking of or even thinking about, and had certainly never told her children. Lisbeth considered her words carefully. “I broke a promise because I found out that Edward did something horrible to someone he should have protected,” she explained.

“What did…” Sammy started to ask.

Lisbeth interrupted, “You are too young to know the specifics, but know that it was so awful that I knew that I could not have a husband like him.”

“What did he do?” Sadie looked so curious.

The horrible image of Edward raping a field hand forced it’s way into her mind. As always picturing the desperation in the young girl’s brown eyes caused a pit in her stomach and made her physically ill.

Lisbeth steadied herself with a slow breath, “When you are fifteen I will tell you,” Lisbeth was firm. “You are still too young to learn about such things. I want you to know that breaking my word was a very hard decision, but it was the right one given the circumstances. Keeping your word is important, very important, but sometimes you learn new information that makes breaking your promise the right thing to do.”

“I was almost born in Virginia?” Sadie asked, seemingly excited and fascinated by this possibility.

Lisbeth smiled, glad to be moving to a new topic. Knowing she was about to challenge her daughter’s understanding of herself, she gently replied, “You would not have been born at all if I hadn’t married your father.”

Sadie drew her eyebrows together, evidently wrestling with the possibility of her own nonexistence. She stared at Lisbeth, her face changing expressions as she thought through the implications of this information.

“That hurts my head to think about,” Sadie finally replied.

“It hurts my heart to think about no you!” Lisbeth replied, smiling at her daughter. She looked at Sammy. “And you too!”

“Did you tell them about the bad thing that man did?” Sammy asked.

“Who?” Lisbeth asked.

“Your parents,” Sammy replied.

Mother had entirely dismissed Lisbeth’s concerns when she’d been told about the scene under the willow tree. She insisted that part of becoming a mature woman was accepting that this behavior was a common part of life for men, which only added to Lisbeth’s horror. Edward’s actions and Mother’s casual acceptance of his brutality utterly shook Lisbeth’s understanding of her world, and ultimately led her to abandon that community along the James River.

“I told Mother, but she did not understand my feelings,” Lisbeth explained.

“Oh,” Sammy said. “Like they didn’t understand that slavery is bad.”

Lisbeth nodded. “Yes.”

“Do they understand now?” he asked, looking concerned.

“Let’s hope that enough time has passed for them to come to peace with my decision,” Lisbeth said, sounding more confident than she felt.

“Cousin Johnny won’t be mad at you, will he?” Sadie asked, putting her own concern first, as children so often did. Sadie planned on being dear friends with her cousin.

“No.” Lisbeth chuckled.

“You don’t think Cousin Johnny has a baseball mitt already, do you?” Sammy asked.

“Unlike Ohio, baseball is new to Virginia,” Lisbeth reassured Sammy that his gift to his cousin would be appreciated. “It is unlikely he will have one, and I think he will be very excited to have something as modern as a baseball mitt.”

“I promise I won’t talk about the war. Now can we watch outside, please!” Sadie begged.

Sadie's enthusiasm was irresistible. Lisbeth nodded and opened the curtains. Blurry cornfields rushed by. Her children watched ahead to where they were going with excitement while Lisbeth gazed out at where they had been, preparing herself for what was to come. view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

1. At the start of Mustard Seed, Mattie and Lisbeth have a deep love for one another, though they have not been close in many years—even in a community like Oberlin. Why do you believe there was a distance between them? Talk about any people in your life that you were like family with and then grew a part.

2. Early in the novel, both Lisbeth and Jordan proclaim that slavery has been abolished and it is time to move forward as a nation. As the story progresses we learn that the owning class is using alternative ways to get reduced price labor. What are some examples? How did these methods surprise you, if any?

3. What character did you relate to? Like? Dislike?

4. Faith played a large role in Mustard Seed. Talk about any ways you identify with the faith of one of the characters in the book. How did any of the characters make you think about faith in a new or different way, if at all?

5. Lisbeth returned to Virginia to care for her dying father. Mattie returned to Virginia to encourage her niece Sarah to move to Ohio. How compelling was each reason to you?

6. Often times it is difficult for a younger generation to really understand their parents' life experiences as well as the other way around. Discuss a time in your life when this was true and if you were able to bridge the gap, how did that come about?

7. The ongoing, often hidden, effect of war is a sub-theme in Mustard Seed. How does that resonate in your life? Our nation?

8. Family is a theme in this novel. What are some examples of the various ways people become family to one another in Mustard Seed?. How does chosen versus inherited (blood, marriage, adoption) family function in your life?

9. How do the life experiences you read about in Mustard Seed impact how you understand race relations in the United States today?

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