Beneath a Golden Veil, by Melanie Dobson, was a book that stuck with me for days after I read it. The story is set in the years before the American Civil War, and is about slavery, its injustices, and how it divided people, even within the same family. In 1854, Alden Payne is a law student at Harvard, but comes from a prominent family in Virginia. His family intends for him to take over the family plantation after he finishes his studies, but Alden's heart isn't into operating the plantation, especially when it requires the servitude of slaves for it to remain successful and prosperous.
On a trip back home before his final year of study, Alden stops by to visit his married sister, Eliza, before heading off to the family's ancestral home. Eliza hands over a slave boy named Isaac, telling Alden that the boy is a gift for their father. Alden arrives home with Isaac in the middle of a manhunt for an escaped slave, Benjamin, who Alden had always considered to be like a brother. When Alden discovers that his father murdered Benjamin for his repeated insubordination, and that Benjamin was actually his half brother, he decides to run away from the plantation and takes Isaac along with him. He intends to set Isaac free by taking him to Canada, before resuming his studies in Harvard, but Isaac's master, Alden's brother-in-law, Victor, catches up to them. Instead of running up to the Canadian border, Alden decides that he and Isaac will board a ship to California and finish his legal studies by apprenticing with a lawyer who had already travelled West to establish a legal office in Sacramento.
Isabelle Labrie, a young woman with secrets in her past, operates a hotel in Sacramento. California, at this time, is a free state, although any slave owners who are passing through could still keep their slaves. Her hotel occasionally becomes a hiding spot for slaves who are trying to make their way to Canada. It is here where she meets Alden and Isaac, who are posing as master and slave, even though Alden abhors slavery. They do this in order to prevent Isaac from being kidnapped; there is a history of freed slaves being abducted and sold back into slavery. Alden is taken with the beautiful Isabelle, but she despises him because she thinks that he is a slave owner. He can't reveal what his true intentions are for Isaac without endangering them both, but trouble dogs them in the form of Victor, who has been following them with the intent of reclaiming Isaac as a slave. However, Victor is not only a problem for Isaac; he poses a threat to Isabelle too.
Beneath a Golden Veil touches on the issues about slavery, freedom, and the need to treat every human being with dignity and respect regardless of their skin colour. The novel speaks about dark things that humans can do against each other, and ultimately, against God. The lives and relationships of several of the characters, whether they were protagonists or antagonists, were messed up. However, there was also hope for those who put their hope in the Lord, both in the present world, and in the world to come.
Also, in the novel, the author tells us through the characters that it doesn't matter what people think because the past shouldn't define us if we are children of God. I think that this is such a precious truth. Our identities, as children of God, are based on God's Word and on Jesus' sacrifice for us; it is not based on what happened to us in the past, or by anything that we have done. (John 1:12 Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God...).
There are discussion questions in the back of the book that I found thought provoking, particularly the one that asked, "The issue of slavery divided the United States of America in the 1800s. What moral issues today divide our communities? How do you fight for what you believe is right?"
The novel is a bit weightier than your average historical romance; however, there is also a happy ending. As I mentioned before, Beneath a Golden Veil made quite an impression on me over its themes and ideas which have stayed with me for days after I finished the book.
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of "Beneath a Golden Veil" by Melanie Dobson from Net Galley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
