Property

In Property, Valerie Martin sets the story on an 1828 Louisiana sugar plantation where Manon Gaudet, a bitter and intelligent wife, chafes under her crude husband's rule while navigating the presence of his enslaved mistress Sarah and their infant son. As rumors of a slave uprising stir the quarters, Manon's personal longing for freedom clashes with the volatile dynamics of ownership and desire. The novel portrays the psychological toll of slaveholding and the hidden tensions that ripple through the plantation household.