Book Review: The Thread Collectors

Synopsis:

1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, Stella, an ingenious young Black woman, embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to aid enslaved men as they flee to join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier and gifted flutist.

In New York City, a Jewish woman stitches a quilt for her husband, Jacob Kling, a musician who is stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. Between abolitionist meetings, Lily rolls bandages and crafts quilts with her sewing circle for other soldiers, hoping for their safe return home.

When months go by without word from Jacob, Lily resolves to make the perilous journey South to search for him and will not be dissuaded.

Stella and Lily risk everything for love and freedom as the brutal Civil War drags on. Their paths converge in New Orleans where, through an unexpected encounter, they discover that even the most delicate threads have the capacity to save us.

Review:

Alyson Richman earned a degree in art history and Japanese studies from Wellesley College and is the bestselling author of several historical fiction novels, including The Garden of Letters, The Velvet Hours, and The Lost Wife. She is also an accomplished painter and frequently weaves her love of art into her stories. She resides on Long Island, New York, with her husband and two children. Shaunna J. Edwards grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in literature before continuing her education at New York University School of Law where she earned her Juris Doctor. She practiced corporate law before penning The Thread Collectors, her debut novel, with Richman. Committed to divesity, equity, and inclusion, she now lives with her husband in Harlem, New York.

The Thread Collectors is the product of a decades-long friendship between Richman and Edwards, a Black woman and Jewish woman who, proud of their heritages, “wanted to explore the Civil War experience through two underrepresented lenses and illuminate the important and often overlooked tragedies of the era.” They also set out to “show how ingenuity and creativity can bridge cultural divides and create power for the seemingly powerless.”

Inspiration for the story came from several sources, including a documentary, “Burying the Civil War Dead,” from which they learned that Black soldiers, who comprised ten percent of the Union Army, enlisted expecting to fight against slavery. Instead, they were often assigned to dig ditches in which white soldiers were buried and created maps designating the burial sites of Black soldiers. Additionally, some eight thousand Jewish men fought. Many of them were German and Hungarian immigrants who came to America to escape religious persecution only to encounter antisemitism and bigotry.

The character of Jacob Kling is based on a musician who enlisted in the 31st Regiment of New York. Having left his wife, Lily, a harpist, behind in New York, Jacob is stationed at Camp Parapet near Jefferson, Louisiana, assisting the doctor who is examining the many Black men who have arrived to serve with the Louisiana Native Guards. In the book, as in the life of Richman’s ancestor, Jacob’s older brother has enlisted in the 29th Regiment of Mississippi. Samuel left New York and established a mercantile emporium in Satartia, Mississippi. Samuel was dispatched by their father to expand the family’s trading business and, surprisingly, found a Jewish bride and settled there. The brothers’ opposing stances create tension, especially when Lily is unable to hide her feelings during a visit. She is appalled that Samuel would join the effort to maintain slavery, telling Eliza, Samuel’s wife, as they sit down to the Seder meal, “Tonight we celebrate family, but we also pay respect to the Israelites’ escape from bondage in Egypt, and yet you fail to see the irony of your words, in support of Southern slavery, dear sister.” Samuel insists that he had no choice and is fighting not to protect slavery, but to hold onto the business and home he has worked hard to establish. He believes that if the Rebel forces lose, his family will be destitute. The brothers’ affection for each other is never in question and both despair at the prospect that they could find themselves on opposite sides of a battlefield.

Stella was inspired, in part, by one of Edwards’s ancestors. Through her and her family members, Edwards wanted to “delve into how skin color and, in the case of William, musical talent afforded opportunities to some that would remain wholly unavailable to others.” As the story opens, Stella and William are saying good-bye to each other, unsure if they will ever be reunited. William is running away from New Orleans and his master, risking his life to join the Union Army at the enlistment camp ten miles away. William and Stella love each other but are not permitted to marry or even make decisions about their own lives. They believe that once the Union Army wins the war, that will change.

There, he meets Jacob and the physician Jacob is assisting, who is astounded that William does not bear the kind of physical scars that so many other enslaved men do and his hands have no calluses. William has never performed hard labor. His musical talent was discovered when he was just six years old and he was sent to live in the main house where he was forced to play the flute to amuse and entertain his master’s wife and their guests. He was required to dress in the hand-me-down suits of his master’s son and perform on command, which was demeaning. Although singled out for his musical prowess, he was denied the opportunity to learn to read music because reading is forbidden . . . and a punishable offense. William can express his feelings through his music, but lacks the ability to commit his thoughts and emotions to paper.

Stella lives in a Creole cottage with her half-sister, Ammanee. Their mother, Janie, lives nearby in her own cottage on Rampart Street. Their homes are furnished with cast-off items, and their masters provide them with meager allowances to buy food. They are among the light-skinned women who enjoy elevated living conditions because they have been granted favor by the white men who control their lives. Janie was separated from Ammanee’s father, the love of her life, and never saw him again, but given her “freedom papers” when Stella was fathered by her master. She is not free to leave, however. Mr. Percy permitted seven-year-old Ammanee to be her half-sister’s nursemaid and promised Janie that she could select the man who would be Stella’s master. Stella was “sent to market” when she was eighteen years old and it was there that she met William, playing his flute. Keeping his promise to Janie, Mr. Percy negotiated a deal with Mason Frye, William’s master, for Stella. She would be provided four bolts of fabric, ten spools of threat, three cotton slips and bloomers, two cast-iron pots, a copper kettle, a wooden desk, a chair, and a mirror. And most importantly, Ammanee would also be purchased to serve as Stella’s maid. The three women are fortunate to be together, but Stella is required to submit to her master’s demands and whims, and when, after William escapes, she realizes she is pregnant, worries what will happen if the child’s skin color is too dark to convince Frye that he is the father.

Stella is a skilled seamstress, of necessity, and after she embroiders a map to guide William, she is called upon by her neighbors to create maps for their sons and brothers who also plan to join the Union Army. She incorporates information gleaned by Ammanee from conversations she overhears while working in the nearby church. Because fabric and thread are precious commodities, quilts, purses, and petticoats must be repurposed, with thread being carefully extracted in order to be used again. Stella codes the maps in various colors signifying routes that are believed to be less fraught with danger than others.

As the war rages on, William is pressed into service, along with a young drummer boy who barely speaks, performing nightmarish tasks he could never have imagined. Teddy is just ten years old, and eventually reveals how he came to be completely alone in the world, his drum his only possession, and in a Union Army camp. William, in particular, is fond of and determined to protect him. Jacob wrote a beautiful song for Lily, “Girl of Fire,” and many of the soldiers have learned it. In the evenings, along with other musicians, Jacob, William, and Teddy bring comfort to and boost the morale of the men who are fighting.

They develop a strong sense of camaraderie through their music, as well as their individual senses of being “other than.” Jacob hides his background, painfully aware that many of the men he encounters have never before met a Jew and not all will accept him. “The men in his infantry had always kept him at arm’s distance. They were mostly polite and cordial, but the feeling of being an outsider was still hard to shake.” William stands apart from many of the other men who have endured harsh physical conditions their entire lives. But William is no stranger to hardship and heartbreak, having watched his mother suffer.

A holiday cease-fire inspires William to enlist Jacob’s assistance to make it special for young Teddy. But their trek into the nearby woods ends tragically and tests the bonds the men have formed. With no idea what is happening to William or even if he is still alive, Ammanee and Stella will do whatever is necessary in order to keep Stella’s child safe. When weeks pass with no word from Jacob, Lily is overcome with worry and determined to find him. But journeying from New York into the South is extremely dangerous, especially for a woman traveling alone, and there are no registries in which the names of soldiers are logged, nor do the various military hospitals maintain records of their patients. Lily’s father in unable to convince her to remain at home and wait for word about Jacob’s whereabouts and condition, and she embarks on a treacherous trip to Samuel’s home. She is shocked when she arrives and see what has become of Samuel and his family. She begins visiting hospitals in search of her husband. There, she witnesses and begins to appreciate the horrifying effects of war as she walks among the wounded and near-dead, hoping to find Jacob among them. She spent months stitching quilts and rolling bandages to send to the very hospitals in which she was now searching for her husband, but “seeing firsthand the pain and hopelessness in each man’s face made her realize that the human suffering of this war could never truly be comprehended by someone far away in New York. She had imagined it would be terrible, but reality was so much worse.”

The Thread Collectors is a sprawling, engrossing story featuring compelling and fully developed characters. Edwards and Richman illustrate the various ways in which their Black characters enjoy better living conditions than many of their contemporaries. Yet, despite those advantages, they are not free. They are still enslaved. Even if they do not bear physical scars inflicted through mistreatment and back-breaking labor, they are emotionally scarred as a result of seeing loved ones abused and ripped away, and being confined and controlled, deprived autonomy even over their own bodies. But they are hopeful, believing that the Union Army will prevail and they will at last be free to live their lives on their own terms.

They are each, in their own ways, resilient and resourceful, resorting to drastic measures, if required, in order to survive. Jacob and Lily are earnest and endearing, but unprepared for the harsh realities of war. Edwards and Richman use the letters they write to each other not only to advance the story, but also provide insight into their feelings, especially concerning the ideological division that threatens the Kling brothers’ relationship.

As the fast-paced and inventive story proceeds, Edwards and Richman cleverly pull together the various storyline threads. Lily, Stella, and Ammenee are tenacious and brave. Eventually, Lily and Stella come face to face and learn about the unlikely friendship between Jacob and William, men of quiet integrity and honor, that is convincingly depicted. Initially because of their mutual love of music, but ultimately because of the atrocities of war, Jacob and William find commonality, and mutual respect and admiration for each other.

The Thread Collectors is the story of unbreakable bonds of family and love for those we choose to be our family members. It is also an illustrationg of the inherent strain in the mother-daughter relationship between Janie, a woman who has survived unspeakable heartbreak and views the world in a pragmatic, realistic manner, and Stella, who is initially idealistic and naive, but quickly matures when she becomes a mother who will do anything to protect her child.

The Thread Collectors is a unique and absorbing work of historical fiction about the most harrowing period in America history that is also timely and contemporary. Edwards and Richman penned the book in 2020, “as the world wrestled with growing awareness of racialized violence and inequality,” in an effort to combine their creative “energy to find beauty in that darkness.” They have indeed crafted a beautifully memorable story that continues to resonate long after reading the last page of the book.

Excerpt from The Thread Collectors

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of The Thread Collectors free of charge from the authors via Net Galley. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure complies with 16 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.