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A housemaid with a dangerous family secret conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape, in volatile pre-Civil War Philadelphia. The rebel . . . the socialite . . . and the fugitive. Together, they will risk everything for one another in this “beguiling story of friendship, deception, and women crossing boundaries in the name of freedom” (Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends). Philadelphia, 1837. After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she’d expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she’s locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives. Longing to break away, Charlotte befriends Nell, a budding abolitionist from one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest Black families. Just as Charlotte starts to envision a future, a familiar face from her past reappears: Evie, her friend from White Oaks, has been brought to the city by the plantation mistress, and she’s desperate to escape. But as Charlotte and Nell conspire to rescue her, in a city engulfed by race riots and attacks on abolitionists, they soon discover that fighting for Evie’s freedom may cost them their own.
A housemaid with a dangerous family secret conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape, in volatile pre-Civil War Philadelphia. The rebel . . . the socialite . . . and the fugitive. Together, they will risk everything for one another in this “beguiling story of friendship, deception, and women crossing boundaries in the name of freedom” (Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends). Philadelphia, 1837. After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she’d expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she’s locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives. Longing to break away, Charlotte befriends Nell, a budding abolitionist from one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest Black families. Just as Charlotte starts to envision a future, a familiar face from her past reappears: Evie, her friend from White Oaks, has been brought to the city by the plantation mistress, and she’s desperate to escape. But as Charlotte and Nell conspire to rescue her, in a city engulfed by race riots and attacks on abolitionists, they soon discover that fighting for Evie’s freedom may cost them their own.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
About the Author-
Ashton Lattimore is an award-winning journalist and a former lawyer. She is the editor-in-chief at Prism, a nonprofit news outlet by and for communities of color, and her nonfiction writing has also appeared in The Washington Post, Slate, CNN, and Essence. Lattimore is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Columbia Journalism School. She grew up in New Jersey, and now lives in suburban Philadelphia with her husband and their two sons. All We Were Promised is her first novel.
Reviews-
November 1, 2023
Lattimore, award-winning journalist and editor in chief at Prism, a nonprofit news outlet by and for communities of color, makes her debut with this story of three young Black women--a formerly enslaved housemaid, an abolitionist socialite, and a currently enslaved woman--whose lives collide in 1837 Philadelphia. Prepub Alert.
Copyright 2023 Library Journal
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from February 15, 2024 Charlotte escaped slavery and settled in 1837 Philadelphia, posing as her white-passing father's maid. Nell, a young woman whose freeborn family enjoys wealth and status in the Black community, takes Charlotte under her wing to introduce her to an abolitionist group but has no idea how well Charlotte understands the realities of slavery. When Charlotte comes face-to-face with Evie, the best friend she had to abandon when she left the plantation, she feels a mixture of guilt and fear. Now that she's in a free state, Evie wants the freedom she thinks Charlotte has. Nell is eager to take on a more active role in the abolitionist movement, but engineering Evie's escape could end up being much more than any of them bargained for. Lattimore's debut is a thoroughly researched gem with a strong sense of place anchored around the construction of Pennsylvania Hall. There is palpable tension throughout as each character puts up emotional barriers for protection, failing to recognize that others are doing the same and filling in the blanks with their own assumptions. Through the perspectives of these three women, the vast difference between safety and freedom is clearly portrayed, as is the determined tenacity of female friendship.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
April 1, 2024 Three young Black women in 1837 Philadelphia—one enslaved, one free, and one a runaway—find friendship and danger in Lattimore’s richly layered debut. Having fled from the White Oaks plantation in Maryland, Charlotte and her father, James, build new lives in the city. James, who passes as white, becomes a successful furniture maker, while Charlotte shrinks under the guise of being his housemaid. Nell Garner, a young Black woman who visits their house, introduces Charlotte to Philadelphia’s Black society and enlists her in aiding the abolitionist movement. Charlotte maintains her cover story with Nell and other abolitionists for everyone’s safety, but danger ensues with the arrival of Evie, another Black woman enslaved at White Oaks, who’s visiting Philadelphia with Charlotte and James’s owner. After a chance meeting at the local market, Evie and Charlotte rekindle their friendship, and Evie decides to risk running away with the help of Charlotte and Nell. Lattimore effectively develops all three of the central characters’ emotions and perspectives as they reconcile what freedom means to them, and she provides a textured view of such historical events as the building of Pennsylvania Hall as a meeting place for the antislavery movement and its subsequent burning by an angry antiabolitionist mob. Lattimore is a writer to watch. Agent: Jaime Carr, Book Group.
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