Vasillopulos

Heirs to Freedom is a love story between a slave woman, Sarah and her husband a South Carolina planter, Gideon Gibson. It is based on a true judicial decision which declared their son, Alexander White. Alexander became a wealthy slave owner and he married a white woman, Elise. His best friend, Todd, although treated well by the Gibsons, avenged his wife’s murder by a white mob. He led a rampaging band of slaves, killing and pillages the region’s plantations. Alexander and Elise had a son, Gideon George, who took after his political grandfather more than his apolitical father. Throughout the four decades of the novel, the emergence of American identity serves as a backdrop to many searing and searching discussions of race, marriage, parenting, masculine and feminine characteristics and roles, church and state, revolutionary violence, jurisprudence, and friendship. Most of the historical figures and the historical events are as true to life as possible, e.g, Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Jefferson and others. The main figures, those that surround the Gibson family are the products of the author’s imagination.