A Complicated Legacy

Book excerpt: If movies and books like Belle, Twelve Years a Slave, The Butler, The Help, A Time to Kill, and Amistad have moved you, you'll love A Complicated Legacy, a novel by Baltimore writer Robert H. Stucky based on the true story of Elijah Willis, a white South Carolina planter, and Amy- the love of his life, the mother of his children, and his slave. Taking place in the decade leading up to the Civil War, it is written with a cinematic eye for atmosphere and setting, a linguist's ear for dialogue, and a historian's grasp of the powerful social forces and momentous events of the time. It is a riveting tale of personal transformation in facing the tide of sweeping social change. Elijah Willis fought family opposition, public opinion, and the law to free his family of choice and leave them his entire inheritance. In so doing, his and Amy's story becomes a microcosm of the human struggles that made the Civil War and the Abolition of Slavery both necessary and inevitable. Set in rural South Carolina, Baltimore, and Cincinnati, this vivid saga weaves history and humanity in a compelling testimony to the power of relationships to shape our destinies, even a century and a half later.