A Single Drop of Ink: A Novel

Frederick Barret, a refugee from war-torn Saint Domingue (modern-day Haiti) overcomes hardship and loss to become a wealthy businessman in Savannah, Georgia... Abigail, Frederick's second wife and the daughter of a wealthy Virginia plantation owner, feels she acquired her husband much as she did her clothes, as hand-me-downs from her sister... Jessie Davis, the Barret's cook and a free woman of color, has secrets of her own and an unnatural way of knowing things... Mammy, Dovie, Lewis, and Minda fight to stay connected as a family despite being household slaves... Together they create a rich cast bound by love, secrecy, and servitude. Neither Abigail's goodness nor Jessie's talents can keep the household, black and white, from spiraling down a course of destruction set in motion by Frederick who is determined to forge a new life of power and prestige, no matter what the cost. Books like Gone with the Wind did much to romanticize the American antebellum South, but real life for women and blacks in the pre-Civil War low country was far from glamorous. A Single Drop of Ink is a current and compelling story of twists and surprises that realistically portrays pre-Civil War American Southerners.