A Light in the Wilderness

by Jane Kirkpatrick

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4.3(3,114)

Letitia Carson treasures the papers proving she is free, but legal freedom does not prevent racism as she crosses the Oregon Trail with Irish cattleman David Carson. Their journey intersects with Nancy Hawkins and a Kalapuya woman whose family has endured the catastrophic consequences of settler arrival.

Based on a Black pioneer’s life, the novel places marriage, property and motherhood inside Oregon’s exclusionary laws. Letitia’s Christian courage is practical as well as spiritual: she must defend her household, insist on legal personhood and form alliances across communities that the territory’s racial order seeks to divide.