Yellow Wife

Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson (2021) is the story of Pheby Delores Brown, a woman fighting to survive slavery in 19th-century Virginia. Born on a plantation in Virginia, Pheby is the daughter of an enslaved seamstress and healer and a white plantation owner. Yellow Wife traces Pheby’s journey from the plantation to Devil’s Half Acre, where she is purchased by a jailer responsible for the sale and transport of humans in the American South. Pheby does everything she can to protect and rescue her loved ones, and she carefully records the names and stories of those whom she cannot save. Her experience is one of internal conflict: Every day Pheby makes choices that damage herself and her sense of self-worth so that she can maintain dignity for her children.

Johnson is a former public relations manager who worked with well-known authors before pursuing her own career in writing. She is the winner of the National Book Club Award, Phillis Wheatley Book Award, and the USA Best Book Award for Best Fiction.

This guide utilizes the 2021 printing by Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.

Content Warning: This book discusses slavery and its effects, and it also contains graphic accounts of physical and sexual violence.