River Sing Me Home

River Sing Me Home is the 2023 debut novel of British-Caribbean author, Eleanor Shearer. Split into three parts that are titled after different colonies in the Caribbean, the novel explores the multiple ways that enslaved people in the Caribbeans resisted slavery through the tale of a mother searching for her stolen children. The story is told through a third-person-limited point of view and includes a prologue and epilogue. The novel is classified as historical fiction, women’s fiction, and Caribbean fiction.

This guide refers to the 2023 Berkley e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, and miscarriage.

Plot Summary

Part 1 begins in the forests of Barbados in 1833. Rachel, the protagonist, has just run from Providence plantation after the enforcement of the Slavery Abolition Act, which introduces the apprenticeship system of the British-colonized Caribbean regions. This system classifies enslaved people as apprentices who must continue working at the plantations for six years.

Rachel meets Mama B, an old woman who helps those seeking freedom. Mama B knows Rachel left Providence to find her stolen children, and she teaches Rachel about The Connection Between All Things. In Bridgetown, Rachel finds her daughter, Mary Grace, who is a servant. Rachel agrees to work for Elvira and Joseph Armstrong, the owners of the clothing shop where Mary Grace works, so they can stay together. Rachel bonds with the Armstrongs, who give her money so that she and Mary Grace can sail to British Guiana to look for her other children. Rachel asks Nobody, a man she befriends on the ship, to join them.

In Part 2, Rachel and Mary Grace find work at a tavern in British Guiana owned by a cruel landlord named Tobias Beaumont. Rachel works alongside and befriends an enslaved man named Albert. While wandering Georgetown, Rachel meets Nuno, an orphaned Akawaio (Indigenous people of Brazil, Guyana, and Venezuela) boy. One night, Nobody emerges with a captain whose life he saved during one of his many sea voyages. The captain tells Rachel a man called Braithwaite may be her son Micah’s enslaver, and Albert knows the name of Braithwaite’s plantation. While journeying alone to the plantation, Rachel encounters a group of enslaved people. She asks one of the people if they knew Micah. The man tells her to ask for Orion, an enslaved man who worked at the plantation. Orion, grieving, tells Rachel that Micah was murdered. Rachel asks about her other son, Thomas Augustus. Orion admits to knowing of him because Thomas famously liberated himself from slavery. Orion speculates that Thomas may have escaped through the Demerara River. Back at the tavern, Mary Grace and Nobody recognize Rachel’s silence about Micah as a sign of his death. Rachel, numbed, grieves vicariously through Mary Grace.

The following day, Rachel alerts Mary Grace and Nobody about Thomas Augustus. They gather provisions and a canoe for the trip. Rachel enlists Nuno’s help since he grew up alongside the Demerara River and knows it well. On the river, Rachel’s understanding of Mama B’s philosophy deepens. An Indigenous man shoots Nobody in the arm with an arrow because he suspects that the travelers are dangerous. Nuno eases the man’s concerns and explains, in his mother tongue, why they are on the river. Rachel notices that the man is protecting a woman and infant and surmises the conversation between Nuno and the man. The woman gives Nuno medicine to help Nobody’s wounds.

Nuno explains that a liberation village is not far. Eventually, the river becomes too narrow to traverse, so the group walks to a resting place. Quamina, an Akan (group originating from West Africa) fugitive from slavery, discovers them. When Rachel mentions Thomas Augustus, Quamina takes the group to the liberation village where Rachel reunites with Thomas. After exchanging stories, Quamina breaks out into song. The next day, Thomas and Rachel bond over the natural landscape. Reluctantly, Thomas tells Rachel about the years she has missed. Rachel spends months in the peaceful village, but is not happy; she needs to recover her remaining children. She alerts Mary Grace and Nobody of her choice; Mary Grace and Nobody will go with her, and marry before they leave.

When Rachel tells Thomas about her decision to leave, they argue. Rachel understands that Thomas’s anger comes not just from worry but from seeing freedom exclusively as living in the moment. After Thomas accepts Rachel’s decision, Rachel realizes that, although she may not see him again, the new memories they made will stay with him. The group returns to Georgetown, leaving a happy Nuno at the village. To support their voyage to Trinidad, Rachel and Nobody work on a ship since the village only had enough money for Mary Grace.

In Part 3, Rachel, Nobody, and Mary Grace arrive at Port of Spain, Trinidad. Short on money to pay for an inn, Rachel quickly begins searching for her daughters, Cherry Jane and Mercy. While gazing at a window in the wealthy part of town, Rachel notices a young woman who resembles Cherry Jane and calls to her. A servant warns Rachel that if she does not leave, they will call the police. Rachel leaves, still convinced the woman in the window was her daughter. While at a market, Rachel sees the woman again, and confirms she is Cherry Jane. Cherry Jane does not embrace Rachel for fear of being discovered. She is passing as the daughter of a well-known, mixed-heritage couple in Barbados. Cherry Jane agrees to meet with her mother the following day. When the day comes, Cherry Jane reunites with Rachel and Mary Jane in the room of the inn. She expresses dismay at the conditions and treats them coldly until Rachel tells her about Micah’s death, which causes her anger and grief. Rachel accepts Cherry Jane’s choice as another path to freedom. Before Cherry Jane leaves them for good, she gives them a lead on where to find Mercy.

Rachel, Mary Grace, and Nobody search unsuccessfully for Mercy on plantations. A strange man advises them to check the liberation settlements to the east. As they continue along the trail, Rachel recognizes the plantation before her. Rachel knows that Thornhill, the plantation’s overseer, is a sadist. To reunite with Mercy, Rachel agrees to apprentice at the plantation. Abraham and Nancy, two enslaved people, connect Rachel with Mercy, who is heavily pregnant and warns Rachel to leave. However, Rachel cannot leave, due to her agreement. Through Abraham, Rachel learns about Cato, the father of Mercy’s baby. Mercy and Cato tried to escape, but were caught. Thornhill killed Cato but kept Mercy alive because he wanted her baby. Rachel plans for how she, Mercy, Nobody, and Mary Grace can escape. After witnessing Thornhill beat Mercy over animals escaping a pen, Rachel knows that they must escape soon. They leave during the day when the hot sun forces Thornhill inside the main house. They run through the forest as bullets fly around them. Once they are at a safe enough place beside a river, they rest for the night; however, Mercy goes into labor, giving birth to a son she calls Micah. Barking dogs and lights in the distance interrupt their joy. Nobody pushes a falling tree into the river and everyone holds on to it. Rachel also holds onto her grandson, praying that the river will carry them to safety.

The group arrives, unscathed, to a place far enough from Thornhill to be safe. Nobody notices that the river has carried them eastward. They walk until they find the sea, and with it, a liberation settlement. Micah fusses. Mary Grace sings one of Quamina’s songs to calm him, using her voice for the first time in years. Overcome with joy at hearing her, the others join, singing either Quamina’s song or their own.