While the Mississippi and Hudson Merge by Brandon Astor Jones
(ISBN 0595484131)
A look at the map will tell you (if you need to know) that the Mississippi and the Hudson never merge, so the title is a puzzle – until its very last line, which turns out to sum up the book in a rather special way.
Three slaves escape from a Mississippi plantation after killing a white overseer. They make their way perilously through Confederate lines, and fall in with Unionists, who take them to New Orleans. Here they are taken in by a black brothel owner, who turns out to be a Unionist agent. As a result one of the slaves (who has changed his name to Wilson Brown) joins the Unionist navy, where he soon distinguishes himself in action at the battle of Mobile Bay, and after further promotion and service is subsequently able to set up house in the state of New York.
Such a basic story, but there is much more in the detail. As for plot, While the Mississippi and Hudson Merge has got everything. Social comment (it starts out with a graphic and realistic portrayal of slaves' lives in the Deep South at the time of the American Civil War); historical accuracy (the author has done his homework and I suspect there are real-life family recollections in here as well); perhaps more surprisingly in someone who has spent most of his life in prison (on death row), naval accuracy (the sea battles, especially the key on of the Battle of Mobile Bay, are rivetingly accurate and exciting); while for sheer horror the opening scene of the runaway Ben being 'bobbed' is hard to beat.
Jones has a real and unusual talent for description. He makes much use of the present tense for immediacy. The dialogue is lively and natural. It is light, readable, even when the subject matter should be heavy. The book would translate well into a script, as I believe the author has conceived it much as a film maker would, though it is well-written by prose standards as well.
It is far from being a mere sociological or military history. The characters, from the least of the slaves, come alive on the page. The story has heroes and heroines (mostly but not only African Americans); villains (mostly but not only white!); romance (there are three love stories, all compelling and finally heart-warming); quite a bit of sex, some of it lurid (hard to avoid in the circumstances of exploitation at the time.)
The author himself points out (in a thought-provoking and informative prologue) that the history of the American Civil War is mostly that of land battles. Yet the naval battles played an important part too, and it is not widely known that African Americans were involved, or, in the case of the novel's main hero Wilson Brown, distinguished in it. This is a man who deserves to be better known to history, a real life hero who would do honor to any community.
A highly interesting picture is provided of New York at the time, where the sailors go on leave, and where recently arrived Irish are seeking out negroes to murder them, seeing them as responsible for the war which is making Irish lives a misery. The description of how the outnumbered black men in a New York alley manage to outwit the would-be lynchers, is a masterpiece of adventure writing. The author shows great skill in setting up the suspense of the black servicemen's hopeless situation, yet freeing them from it by a device that is almost comic in its lightness, yet utterly convincing.
This is a well-paced and beautifully written adventure story. It is also a true record of a proud moment in the struggle of African Americans to be free, and their involvement on the Unionist side which crucially tipped the balance against the South in the final years of that conflict. A quite fascinating, exciting and satisfying read.
James Gordon lives in London and he keeps a probing eye on writers in the United States. j.gordon33@ntlworld.com
While the Mississippi and the Hudson Merge is available through the iUniverse Book Sales Representative Kyle Burkett (toll free) at (800) 288 4677 extension 5423. Or by writing to the publisher direct at
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And also through their website.
