Beyond the Crossroad

Set in the 1800s in the mountains of North Carolina, Beyond the Crossroad explores a little-known aspect of American history--the practice of holding Black people in bondage after legal slavery had ended. This is the journey of Caroline--a journey that is both physical and psychological. She is given or sold from owner to owner, encountering other re-enslaved Black people along the way. Her ownerssee her as a commodity and not as a person, and each gives her a different name, a name meaningful to themselves but not to her. Although Caroline answers to those names to survive, she always knows who she is. My name is Carolineshe tells her fellow slaves. Later, imprisoned in a smokehouse with snakes slithering over her legs and rats nibbling her toenails, she realizes that she must choose to live or perish. At the moment when bondage has stripped her of virtually everything, she chooses life over death, and asserts, I AM CAROLINE! Now she is ready to risk everything for freedom. Now she is at the crossroad.