A Free State: A Novel

by Tom Piazza

Overview

The author of City of Refuge returns with a startling and powerful novel of race, violence, and identity set on the eve of the Civil War.

The year is 1855. Blackface minstrelsy is the most popular form of entertainment in a nation about to be torn apart by the battle over slavery. Henry Sims, a fugitive slave and a brilliant musician, has escaped to Philadelphia, where he earns money living by his wits and performing on the street. He is befriended by James Douglass, leader of a popular minstrel troupe struggling to compete with dozens of similar ensembles, who imagines that Henry’s skill and magnetism might restore his troupe’s sagging fortunes.

The problem is that black and white performers are not allowed to appear together onstage. Together, the two concoct a masquerade to protect Henry’s identity, and Henry creates a sensation in his first appearances with the troupe. Yet even as their plan begins to reverse the troupe’s decline, a brutal slave hunter named Tull Burton has been employed by Henry’s former master to track down the runaway and retrieve him, by any means necessary.

Bursting with narrative tension and unforgettable characters, shot through with unexpected turns and insight, A Free State is a thrilling reimagining of the American story by a novelist at the height of his powers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062284136
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/13/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Tom Piazza is the author of the novels City of Refuge and My Cold War, the post-Katrina manifesto Why New Orleans Matters, the essay collection Devil Sent the Rain, and many other works. He was a principal writer for the HBO drama series Treme and the winner of a Grammy Award for his album notes to Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues: A Musical Journey. He lives in New Orleans.

Editorial Reviews

This trim historical fiction, set in 1855, has all the components of a thrilling pursuit adventure. But the action of A Free State conceals a deeper purpose, which is to probe, through the medium of 19th Century minstrelsy, elaborate contradictions in the antebellum psyche.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A page-turning novel about real times that are stranger than fiction.

New York Post

Informed by the history of a reviled and forgotten idiom, loving scholarship about the banjo, and the very passport to freedom of body and spirit, this beautiful writing finds echoes in conflicts that persist—envy, imitation, injustice, brutality, inequality—and ultimately offers hope. I urge you to read it for yourself.

Elvis Costello

Piazza, an authority on jazz, blues, and bluegrass, includes fascinating nuggets of musical history and period detail… While the book strives to be both a literary thriller and a meditation on the complexities and contradictions of America’s cultural heritage, its pleasures are mostly those of the well-paced page-turner.

The New Yorker

A page-turning novel about real times that are stranger than fiction.

New York Post

08/31/2015
In Piazza's well-told historical novel, 19-year-old Henry Sims, an enterprising runaway slave from a Virginia plantation, arrives in Philadelphia in 1855 with a banjo and prodigious music talent. He performs on street corners for money until James Douglass, the manager of a popular black minstrel troupe, catches one of Henry's rousing acts. Searching for fresh stage material to woo back the audiences and bolster his sagging profits, James offers Henry a job playing in the troupe. Piazza (City of Refuge) gives a fasciantingly detailed portrayal of 19th-century minstrelsy, a "national sensation" that could only legally be performed by white men wearing dark grease paint. Ironically, James adopts the practice to camouflage Henry in blackface while he appears onstage. James is willing to run the risk of arrest, but he still worries about reprisals if Henry is found to be an escaped slave or wanted criminal. Meantime, James Stephens, Henry's white plantation master (and biological father) back in Hopewell, Va., hires Tull Burton, an odious and cruel bounty hunter, to track down and return him. The final section loses a bit of steam, but Piazza's novel vividly depicts a cultural pheonmenon through Henry's harrowing journey. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Informed by history of a reviled and forgotten idiom, loving scholarship about the banjo, and the very passport to freedom of body and spirit, this beautiful writing finds echoes in conflicts that persist-envy, imitation, injustice, brutality, inequality-and ultimately offers hope. I urge you to read it for yourself.” — Elvis Costello, NYPL Book Recommendation

“Tom Piazza’s new novel is a crisply told tale of race relations in Philadelphia a few years before the Civil War, one that brings into sharp relief the tensions that beset Northern society even as it was about to go to war to rid the nation of slavery.” — BookPage

“This trim historical fiction, set in 1855, has all the components of a thrilling pursuit adventure. But the action of A Free State conceals a deeper purpose, which is to probe, through the medium of 19th Century minstrelsy, elaborate contradictions in the antebellum psyche.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Piazza, an authority on jazz, blues, and bluegrass, includes fascinating nuggets of musical history and period detail… While the book strives to be both a literary thriller and a meditation on the complexities and contradictions of America’s cultural heritage, its pleasures are mostly those of the well-paced page-turner.” — The New Yorker

“A page-turning novel about real times that are stranger than fiction.” — New York Post

“Informed by the history of a reviled and forgotten idiom, loving scholarship about the banjo, and the very passport to freedom of body and spirit, this beautiful writing finds echoes in conflicts that persist—envy, imitation, injustice, brutality, inequality—and ultimately offers hope. I urge you to read it for yourself.” — Elvis Costello, Omnivoracious

“Piazza’s novel vividly depicts a cultural phenomenon through Henry’s harrowing journey.” — Publishers Weekly

Advance Praise for A FREE STATE: “This rich novel about minstrelsy, slavery, and the dream of escape shows that our demons and our angels haven’t changed much. But the portrait of the struggle is so insightful that it becomes its own strong vision of hope.” — Zachary Lazar, author of I Pity the Poor Immigrant and Sway

“[A Free State] has great kinetic energy, a gripping central narrative, and a host of indelible characters. And, in the current age of identity politics, it speaks to the prevailing cultural obsession with ‘authenticity’ by exposing the fragility of that very notion. A hugely rewarding novel.” — Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane

“Once I’d begun reading A Free State, I couldn’t leave my chair. It combines bite-your-nails tension with deeply felt evocations of the brutalities of slavery, the perplexities of racial masquerading and the transcendent joys of making music. At the end he executes a swerve so bold, it’ll take your breath away.” — David Gates

“A thoughtful examination of the intertwining of race and culture—as well as a truly scary portrait of a genuine psychopath.” — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

[A Free State] has great kinetic energy, a gripping central narrative, and a host of indelible characters. And, in the current age of identity politics, it speaks to the prevailing cultural obsession with ‘authenticity’ by exposing the fragility of that very notion. A hugely rewarding novel.

Monica Ali

Advance Praise for A FREE STATE: “This rich novel about minstrelsy, slavery, and the dream of escape shows that our demons and our angels haven’t changed much. But the portrait of the struggle is so insightful that it becomes its own strong vision of hope.

Zachary Lazar

Once I’d begun reading A Free State, I couldn’t leave my chair. It combines bite-your-nails tension with deeply felt evocations of the brutalities of slavery, the perplexities of racial masquerading and the transcendent joys of making music. At the end he executes a swerve so bold, it’ll take your breath away.

David Gates

Tom Piazza’s new novel is a crisply told tale of race relations in Philadelphia a few years before the Civil War, one that brings into sharp relief the tensions that beset Northern society even as it was about to go to war to rid the nation of slavery.

BookPage

Piazza, an authority on jazz, blues, and bluegrass, includes fascinating nuggets of musical history and period detail… While the book strives to be both a literary thriller and a meditation on the complexities and contradictions of America’s cultural heritage, its pleasures are mostly those of the well-paced page-turner.

The New Yorker

This trim historical fiction, set in 1855, has all the components of a thrilling pursuit adventure. But the action of A Free State conceals a deeper purpose, which is to probe, through the medium of 19th Century minstrelsy, elaborate contradictions in the antebellum psyche.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

08/01/2015
Two runaways—one white, one black, one free, one yearning to be—converge in pre-Civil War Philadelphia where they are united through music. James partners with local musicians to form a blackface minstrel group. Joseph, an escapee from a Virginia plantation who goes by the name of Henry, plays banjo on the streets. With James's daring plan, the two propel the lagging minstrel show to new popularity with "Henry" playing and dancing in the troupe under the cover of blackface. Meanwhile, a sadistic slave hunter takes the assignment to recapture Joseph, dead or alive. James soon schemes to help "Henry" escape one more time. VERDICT Blending his fondness for the music of the era with concerns about American race relations, Piazza (City of Refuge) offers a fresh approach for fans of Civil War historicals with its integration of blackface entertainment into this story of escape. The finer points made about the history and development of the banjo punctuated with lyrics from the period should delight banjo music enthusiasts. [See Prepub Alert, 6/21/15.]—Wendy W. Paige, Shelby Cty. P.L., Morristown, IN

Library Journal

2015-06-30
A fugitive slave pursued by a vicious bounty hunter provides the fictional framework for novelist and music writer Piazza (Devil Sent the Rain, 2011, etc.) to ponder the contradictions of blackface minstrelsy. Fleeing the bitter knowledge that the man who owns him is his father, Joseph heads north to Philadelphia, acquiring the name Henry Sims en route. He's a brilliant banjo player and extraordinary dancer, so when James Douglass sees him performing on the street, he knows Henry is the man to revive the flagging fortunes of his minstrelsy troupe, the Virginia Harmonists. It's illegal for a Negro to appear onstage with white performers, but light-skinned Henry audaciously suggests he can hide his race by applying burnt cork as they do. James agrees; having escaped drudgery on a Pennsylvania farm to find paradoxical freedom in "blacking up," he feels a surprising kinship with this proud, assertive artist who doesn't bother to disguise his opinion that he's as good as any white man. Passing off their new member as Mexican, the Virginia Harmonists gain renewed popularity. Unfortunately, their reputation as "the best nigger show in town" attracts the attention of Tull Burton, dispatched by Joseph's owner/father to recapture him. Several sickeningly brutal scenes have already made it clear that Tull is a dangerous sadist, and the tension is nearly unbearable as he stalks Henry. But Piazza's elegantly written narrative also has time for James' poetic musings on the masks all performers wear, as well as his uneasy feelings about finding joy in an act grounded in the culture of an enslaved people. The rest of the Harmonists are also fully fleshed characters, as is the troupe's seamstress, Rose, whose final appearance quietly makes the point that women too are painfully confined in antebellum America. The closing pages offer no neat resolution for anyone, only haunting reminders of life's uncertainties and complexities. A thoughtful examination of the intertwining of race and culture—as well as a truly scary portrait of a genuine psychopath.

Kirkus Reviews