Children of Strangers

I have never heard of mulatto plantation owners after the civil war. it was an eye opening look into the life of a race of people that history doesn't discuss much.

I think it is stupid to rate this book based on some misconceptions of how Mr Saxon viewed blacks or rural people. Saxon was regarded by anyone who knew him as very progressive in this regard if not a bit too paternalistic. One of the obituaries written of him at his passing referred to him as "friend toward black people". The cane river plantation was Lyle Saxon's home away from home when he wasn't in his beloved New Orleans. Saxon had a great nostalgia for his days as a youth in a plantation just south of Baton rouge. He loved to relax there and did his most productive writing there. As an educated and cultured man living most of the time in New Orleans and hanging around people like Sherwood Anderson and William Faulkner he probably would think of rural farm people as uncultured or less educated. I don't have a problem with that. Saxon here provides an insightful story of plantation life from the inside looking out. He delves into the attitudes of Creoles and race and how they perceived the world. He was fully aware that while plantation life was a getaway and relaxation to him it was hard work for those who relied on it to live. This is a well crafted piece thaqt is tight and well detailed and it should be it took him years write. Lyle Saxon is best known for his love of New Orleans especially his beloved view carrie and he was instrumental in popularizing it as a place for writers and artists. While Saxon lived most of his adult life in New Orleans most of his writings are about plantation life a subject very near and dear to him. Children of strangers is a seminal book of it's kind! Other Saxon books about plantation life in Louisiana-Friends of joe Gilmour-Father Mississippi-Old Louisiana. No writer loved Louisiana more or wrote about it better.