Wench

In 1850s Tennessee, 13-year-old slave named Lizzie is taken on by the plantation owner as a sexual mistress, a practice common to the time. Lizzie's master even takes her along with him to a spa resort in "free" Ohio when the Southern summer heat becomes too much to bear. There, Lizzie meets two other young black women caught in a similar form of bondage, and the three begin considering a break for freedom--an act that would mean abandoning everything in their life they know as home. A disturbing and engrossing historical novel, WENCH addresses many of the unspoken complexities and bizarre social permutations brought about by the atrocity of slavery.