The Land

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Taylor, Mildred D. 2001. THE LAND. New York: Phyllis Fogelman Books. ISBN 0-8037-1950-7.

PLOT SUMMARY
Paul Logan enjoys an almost idyllic childhood on a large farm in Georgia in the late 1860s. His mother is an African-Indian former slave, and his father is the white landowner. Paul and his sister, Cassie, are educated and treated in the same manner as their white half-siblings. An unfortunate incident brings into focus the fact that he is the illegitimate mixed-race child of a relationship that is condoned but never acknowledged in polite post-Civil War society. Paul's mother dies when he is fourteen, and a disagreement with his father causes him to run away with Mitchell, the African-American son of one of his father's sharecroppers. The teens come of age as they work together in logging camps around the South. Paul loves his father's land and longs to own land himself someday. He works hard for many years as a logger and furniture-maker to save enough money to buy his own farm. Along the way he and Mitchell fall in love with the same girl, Caroline. Mitchell and Caroline are wed for only a short time when he is shot and fatally injured. Paul and Caroline marry eventually and with the help of his estranged white brother, Robert, he realizes his dream of owning his own land in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Mildred D. Taylor draws on her own family history to tell an honest, authentic story about the lives of African-Americans in the South after the Civil War. The social mores, prejudices, and racial double-standard of the era are portrayed faithfully in the story of Edward Logan's mixed-race son, Paul-Edward. The scenes of life on the Logan farm, including family dinners, horse racing, hunting, and fishing, evoke a sense of peace and harmony following the turmoil of the Civil War. Taylor does not, however, sugar-coat the realities of life for Paul-Edward as he grows to young adulthood in a world where he fits in with neither the white nor the African-American communities. She describes in painful detail the humiliation and confusion that Paul feels when he is stripped and beaten by his father in front of others for striking three white boys. Children will be able to identify with Paul's anger and pain at being treated so unfairly. Taylor uses just enough detail to paint an accurate picture of the South in the 1860s. The modes of transportation (trains, horses, and carriages), style of dress (breeches for men, long skirts for women), and language (including the acceptability of racial slurs) are accurate historically to the time period.

The characters in The Land are well-developed and speak and act in a manner befitting the time period. The family relationships and friendships are timeless in quality. There are universal themes of love, trust, betrayal, injustice, joy, and triumph woven throughout the story of Paul-Edward Logan's life. Taylor includes information about her sources of information and comments about life for African-Americans before the Civil Rights Movement in a "Note to the Reader" at the beginning of the book and an "Author's Note" at the end. Her personal connection to the characters in The Land, and her faithful, authentic rendering of their story lends authority and depth to this tale of perseverance and love.

AWARDS
Coretta Scott King Awards - 2002
ALA Notable Books for Children - 2002
Los Angeles Times Book Prizes - 2001
PEN Center USA West Literary Award - 2002
Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award - 2002
ABC Children's Booksellers Choices Awards - 2002

REVIEW EXCERPTS

Voice of Youth Advocates: "Taylor uses stories from her own family's past to create a fascinating and honest look at life's struggles and joys for many African American families after the Civil War."

Booklist: "Like Taylor's Newbery Medal book, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976), this powerful historical novel, a prequel to Roll of Thunder, refuses to 'whitewash' history."

CONNECTIONS
>Read Taylor's Newbery Medal Winner, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, which is the story of nine-year-old Cassie Logan.
>Learn more about Mildred D. Taylor on the website for the University of Mississippi at www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/taylor_mildred/#Internet.