Her neighbors have fled, the church pews are nearly empty at Sunday mass, and her own children have turned their backs on Watts and on the pride and values Camille instilled in them. The devastation of the Watts riots and the ravages of Reaganomics, however, changed everything. Her kitchen overflowed with the fragrant aromas of Creole cooking, and the taste of her divine crawfish, rich gumbos, and delicious pralines had family and friends begging for seconds and thirds. After the war, she endures continued hardship before settling down with Papa Duban.(Camille Broussard can remember a time when she had more p.)Ĭamille Broussard can remember a time when she had more pep in her stride and her single-story house was one of the nicest homes in the cozy, well-kept neighborhood of Watts. There she has several more children (including Marianne’s mother) with a slave named Andrew, who is killed during the Civil War. After her two children are taken away from her, however, she burns down her master’s storehouse and is sold downriver to a sugarcane plantation. As a slave in Missouri, she becomes known for her gift with natural remedies and is often called upon to treat white patients. Sadie “Nanna” Watson is the narrator of the novel’s central story. He is often unkind, but he is not as cruel as many other masters. Mas Watson is the master of the plantation where Sadie and Jim live, and Sadie believes that he is her father. When Jim finds Sadie after the war, he tells her that Lizbeth died in a refugee camp. Sadie is separated from her after she angers Mas Stevens.

Lizbeth Watson is the oldest child of Sadie and Jim and is left deaf by a bout of scarlet fever. Neither she nor Jim can find him after the war.

He is sold downriver as a punishment to Sadie, and she never hears of him again. Jonnie Watson is the younger of two children born to Sadie and Jim. After she rebels further he beats her severely, poking out one of her eyes, and then sells her downriver. When Sadie stands up to him, he sells her son, Jonnie, as punishment. He repeatedly rapes first Sadie and then her daughter. Mas Stevens is the cruel master who buys Sadie and her children after Mas Watson’s death. As she and Sadie make a memory quilt for her to take to her new home in Nebraska, she hears her family’s history for the first time. Marianne Libre is Sadie’s granddaughter and the narrator of the novel’s framing story. He dies just prior to the opening of the novel. Papa Duban is the man Sadie marries after the Civil War who helps her raise her children.

My Jim by Nancy Rawles