Summary

In the spring of 1953 Ann Wilson and her two-year-old daughter arrived in Durham to meet her husband, French Wilson. French had found work in a Durham tobacco factory. Since Ann became pregnant at the age of fourteen, the couple had managed to stay together through a tumultuous relationship.

After getting off the bus in Durham, Anne quickly learned that the couple’s conflicts would worsen. Anne eventually found her husband in a bar. Anne then learned that her husband shared a small bedroom with a strange man and this would be her new home. Although French was employed, he wasted most of his money at the bar which forced Anne to get a job as a domestic worker for a white family. For several weeks the couple acted out a cycle of physical violence, break-up, and reconciliation. They had another baby girl, but eventually...