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Though it varies by health and circumstance, a human being’s time on this earth is finite. Some items made by human beings however, can and do last through the ages. Such is the case with a gold watch that is the axis on which Haley’s historical novel turns. Set in the lush Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, this is a tale that begins in 1840 when a wealthy plantation owner bestows a gold watch to his son and heir—a watch that had been bestowed to him by his father. Thus begins a multi-generational, multi-racial story that encompasses the worst and best of human behavior.
A scion of the plantation owner’s family rapes a slave. In so doing, he loses the precious timepiece his father had given him to give to his heir. The slave finds the watch and hides it. She becomes pregnant and has a son. Eventually the child of violence grows to manhood and learns of his ignoble beginnings. How will this knowledge affect the family life he is soon to begin, and what will become of the priceless heirloom?
While hard questions without easy answers and secrets slowly revealed make up the thread of Haley’s tome, the author covers other territory as well. He layers his text with the horrors of slavery, the savagery of the Civil War, plus the ill treatment and prejudice suffered by former slaves during Reconstruction. Though an overabundance of exposition at the expense of dramatization dulls the impact of some of the tale’s tributaries, a sense of decency and respect for humanity remain. Haley’s is a chronicle tracking the progress of families that arose from something less than love, but grew to understand its healing powers.