THE TRIALS OF CELIA

At the dawn of the 20th century, a white Kentuckian bequeaths the family farm to his Black housekeeper in this novel from Guma.

The principals in this drama, based on a true story, are Celia Mudd and Sam Lancaster. Celia is the Black housekeeper, and her people, enslaved but now free, have been entwined with the Lancasters going back at least to the 17th century. Although the Civil War is now 40 years in the past, the ghosts of that war still haunts this land. These are Kentuckians, and it is important to note that not only are the Lancasters relatively enlightened but that Kentucky, having declared itself neutral during the Civil War, laid itself open to depredations and bad blood from both sides. In his 1902 will, Sam Lancaster, after some small bequests, leaves his farm to Celia: This enrages Robert, his brother and only surviving family member, who of course contests the will. The legal battle over the farm is at the core of the book, enhanced with flashbacks. The plaintiffs’ strategy is to prove that Sam was of unsound mind when left the farm to a Black person. The chapters about the family’s past are particularly affecting, such as Sam and Robert’s mother’s regard for the family’s slaves (named Ann Lancaster, she teaches Celia to read, a heresy at the time) and the scene at the farm when emancipation is announced. The relationship between Celia and Sam is well handled in all its contradictions. There are two people bound by their time and place but tentatively reaching out to each other. Racism rules that society like a despotic god, but for once basic decency—and something very much like love—wins out. Unfortunately, as the book proceeds there are stretches of typos and the mixing up of characters’ names, which is distracting. An epilogue provides a satisfying denouement.

Despite the novel’s technical flaws, Guma has brought a troubled but touching slice of American history to life.