pickEliza and Will have made a lovely home for themselves and their two children in Kansas but when Will goes to fight for the Union against the “seceshes” (secessionists), Eliza must run the farm mostly alone and face life as “just a woman,” in a very man‘s world. She must decide whether to help an escaped slave, how to deal with brutal thugs who would as soon kill her and her kids as look at her, and whether she should let a secesh help her when ⬇️
Texreader stops at her farm on his way west. Meanwhile, her secesh-hating son, not quite grown, is a help but a hindrance. Eliza has her quilting group and her beautiful Christmas quilt, a gift to her husband on the battlefield, is the thread that partly holds the tale together. It‘s a beautiful story with important lessons for recovering from that traumatic war even today. There‘s still so much hate, and this story shows that it doesn‘t have to be ⬇️ 1h
Texreader that way. I‘m a southern girl with multiple ancestors who fought for the confederacy. They didn‘t own and never owned slaves. Why did they fight? Were they conscripted? Or went to war because their buddies did? Or were there other reasons? I‘ll never know that much, sadly, but I cannot hate them. My gggrandfather walked home from Raleigh after the south surrendered. His tale is miraculous. I‘d like to think he‘s like the “secesh” in this story. ⬇️ 1h
Texreader I really appreciated reading how this one family found peace. It really made me think a lot about my genealogical research as well as the fact that there‘s still so much pain today. I don‘t know how we ever find peace but I wish it were so, so much. #letterQ #Christmasatoz #xmaschacha #wintergames @StayCurious (edited) 1h
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