Tall Oaks

Tall Oaks is the name of the farm where this novel is set during the late 1790s to 1810. Tall Oaks is a tobacco farm that is worked by slaves owned by the Pyke family. It is here that Lavinia is taken as an ill six year old girl to work as an indentured servant. It is also here that the Pykes’ only surviving child, Marshall, is abused and later becomes a tyrant, abusing his wife and servants and selling off much of the farm and his slaves to pay gambling debts. It is also here that Mama Mae is hung and Marshall shot to death by his own child. In the end, it is also here that Lavinia makes a new farm, working it with her daughter and her freed slaves, people she has always considered family.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia is where the captain always promises to take...