Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson: A Novel
    The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson: A Novel
    The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson: A Novel

    Written by Nancy Peacock

    Narrated by JD Jackson

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    I have been to hangings before, but never my own.
    Sitting in a jail cell on the eve of his hanging, April 1, 1875, freedman Persimmon "Persy" Wilson wants nothing more than to leave some record of the truth-his truth. He may be guilty, but not of what he stands accused: the kidnapping and rape of his former master's wife.
    In 1860, Persy had been sold to Sweetmore, a Louisiana sugar plantation, alongside a striking, light-skinned house slave named Chloe. Their deep and instant connection fueled a love affair and inspired plans to escape their owner, Master Wilson, who claimed Chloe as his concubine. But on the eve of the Union Army's attack on New Orleans, Wilson shot Persy, leaving him for dead, and fled with Chloe and his other slaves to Texas. So began Persy's journey across the frontier, determined to reunite with his lost love. Along the way, he would be captured by the Comanche, his only chance of survival to prove himself fierce and unbreakable enough to become a warrior. His odyssey of warfare, heartbreak, unlikely friendships, and newfound family would change the very core of his identity and teach him the meaning and the price of freedom.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateJan 17, 2017
    ISBN9781681684109
    Author

    Nancy Peacock

    Nancy Peacock is the author of the novels Life Without Water and Home Across the Road, as well as the memoir, A Broom of One’s Own: Words on Writing, Housecleaning, and Life. She currently teaches writing classes and workshops in and around Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband Ben.

    Related to The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson

    Related audiobooks

    African American Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Letter to My Son

      Jul 4, 2015

      Letter to My Son
      30 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11

      Dec 7, 2021

      The Art of Nonfiction No. 11
      26 min read

    • Article

      The Way We Were

      Jun 1, 2023

      The Way We Were
      7 min read

    • Article

      Nikki Sixx

      Oct 12, 2021

      Nikki Sixx
      14 min read

    • Article

      Now Is the Time

      Nov 24, 2020

      Now Is the Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ben Okri

      Apr 25, 2022

      Ben Okri
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips

      Jun 10, 2020

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
      6 min read

    • Article

      “Ate Up” With trapping

      Jan 28, 2022

      He was just a kid when I met him in the 1990s. Twelve, maybe 13. But it was obvious he was “ate up” with trapping. My first book, “The Mink Manual,” had been on the market a year or two, and I was there at the convention trying to sell more copies. T

      2 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Gene Simmons

      Apr 1, 2022

      EVERYBODY KNOWS GENE Simmons. Or at least, they think they know Gene Simmons. Kiss co-founder, blood-dribbler, tongue-waggler and possessor of one of rock’s biggest egos. But long before he became The Demon, he was Chaim Witz, a kid born in Israel an

      5 min read

    • Article

      ‘Lady in the Lake’: Featured Fiction from Laura Lippman

      Jul 23, 2019

      An excerpt from Lippman's latest, a sophisticated crime novel that captures the 1960s zeitgeist while painting a striking portrait of female ambition. The post ‘Lady in the Lake’: Featured Fiction from Laura Lippman appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      I'll Be Seeing You

      Mar 1, 2023

      I'll Be Seeing You
      25 min read

    • Article

      Newspaper Girl

      May 30, 2023

      I'll never forget the summer of 1953. That's when I took over my sister Carol's paper route. The route had been handed down to Carol four years earlier by my oldest sister, Suzanne. At first, I looked forward to the task. But my interest in and desir

      4 min read

    • Article

      HUNTING With The Ellements…

      Sep 13, 2021

      HUNTING With The Ellements…
      19 min read

    • Article

      OreoArroyo

      Jul 6, 2021

      WHEN THE STRIPPER STRUTTED INTO THE LIBRARY, SHE COULDN’T hide her dismay. Probably, she and her bodyguard expected a bachelor party or investment bankers celebrating a big deal at the mansion overlooking the Newport Coast. She wouldn’t have anticipa

      21 min read

    • Article

      I Never Called Her Momma

      Sep 13, 2023

      I Never Called Her Momma
      39 min read

    • Article

      Exodus

      Sep 15, 2018

      My exodus occurred after years wandering the wilderness of my hometown. For bread to live, for bread to leave, I worked a part-time gig at the Oregonian’s downtown insert facility, stacking pallet after pallet of inky-ass newspapers. The day in quest

      15 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Sep 1, 2023

      Table Talk
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson

    4/5

    33 ratings7 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This was a powerful read – it’s my first 5 star read for the year. The book starts as Persimmon Wilson sits in jail awaiting his hanging. He sets about writing his story so that, as he notes, the truth will be told because as he notes the stories being told about him are not the whole truth. He did not kidnap and rape anyone. He wants the world to know his tale – not that he for one minute believes that his words will be read or taken for the truth.Persimmon’s first master was a woman who treated her slaves more compassionately than most. She even went so far as to to teach them to read and write – which was very dangerous. Unfortunately things did not work out there and Persimmon and all of the slaves were sold. He ended up with a man who owns a sugarcane plantation in Louisiana along with some other men and a beautiful woman. This woman, Chloe and Persimmon find a spark between them but their new master has designs on Chloe. Persy goes to the fields and Chloe to the big house where she ostensibly cares for the master’s sick wife but she is there at his beck and call. Despite this Persy and Chloe manage to see each other despite the danger.As the Civil War looms and emancipation is in the air the master hightails it to Texas. Persy has the opportunity to escape but he won’t leave Chloe. This leads to a confrontation with the master that leaves Chloe thinking he is dead. And he nearly is but he is saved and is determined to find her even though he knows nothing more than they are in Texas. The War might have freed the slaves but folks in Texas haven’t quite accepted the reality so Persy has to be careful – he fortunately hooks up with a man who doesn’t care about his color and they head out to work a ranch. They just have to beware the Cherokee who are raiding.Just as Persy learns where Chloe is he gets captured. At this point he about doesn’t care whether he lives or dies. He ends up becoming part of the tribe and this leads to the next chapter of his life. The one where he is the most free.This book was riveting. I had the world’s worst time putting it down and I’m keeping it to read again. As tough as that will be because Ms. Peacock does not spare her readers when dealing with the more difficult aspects of slavery, rape, war, injustice – anything. It’s very well written and not at all gratuitous but it can be difficult to read. To understand how humans can be towards one another. These characters stay with you – they are so well developed they become real. You feel a part of their world and feel their emotions. I will note that the ending is absolutely heartbreaking. It brought tears to my eyes and it took me a while for it to stop invading my thoughts.The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson is a book that will challenge and that will make you think. It’s well worth adding to a library.
    • 4/5
      Good one. Went in a couple different directions - so you had to keep reading to figure out how he got where he got. Got it? lol
    • 5/5
      This wonderful novel opens on April 1, 1875, in Drunken Bride, Texas. Persimmon Wilson is awaiting a hanging. Given the fact that Persy is black and the main means of execution was hanging back in that time period, he’s no stranger to these events. Fortunately for him, he’s never been the guest of honor. He writes this for Chloe, the only woman he ever loved. “I write this that she may be known for who she was, and not for who you think she was."In November 1860, Percy was put on the auction block. There he saw Chloe for the first time and if one believed in love at first sight, Percy and Chloe were struck by Cupid’s arrow. Author Peacock does an excellent, cringe-worthy job of illustrating the degradation the men, women, and children who were slaves had to endure. Fortunately, the master of Louisiana’s Sweetmore Plantation bought both Chloe and Persy.Life on the sugarcane plantation is brutal. Chloe is designated as a maid to the mistress while Persy is sent to the fields. Peacock did her research and describes their life in all its horrors. I admire her use of the language of the time. It lends authenticity, and before I knew it, I felt like I was living alongside Percy. In this overly political world we live in, it’s nice to see an author be true to the historical time period.When the Civil War broke out, Sweetmore wasn’t immediately affected, but soon the Yankees came a callin’. Wilson fled to slaves, taking his slaves with him. As the steamer pulls out into the river, Persy and Chloe are separated. Persy spends five years searching for Chloe. During that time, Persy is captured by the Comanches and becomes a member of their tribe.Persy and Chloe’s love story is one for the ages.This half of the novel doesn’t feel quite as realistic as did the first half. Still, the research felt genuine and provided Persy with an amazingly interesting life. He learns the language and their ways. He becomes a Comanche and gains a reputation throughout Texas.I wanted so badly to give The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson 6 out of 5 stars, but the slightly-less-then-true feel of the second half force me to give Nancy Peacock’s novel 5 stars out of 5 in Julie’s world.
    • 3/5
      This novel gets off to a gripping start, with a black man in 1875 on the eve of his execution determined to write his story. Persimmon Wilson starts with his life in slavery, where he worked hard to make sugar crane on a brutal plantation in Louisiana and how he first encountered the love of his life, a fellow slave called Chloe. The Civil War disrupted this life and started a journey during which Persimmon became a Union soldier, a traveler desperately seeking Chloe, and eventually a Comanche raiding Texan towns. A fascinating tale and one well-told by the author.
    • 5/5
      This was a powerful read – it’s my first 5 star read for the year. The book starts as Persimmon Wilson sits in jail awaiting his hanging. He sets about writing his story so that, as he notes, the truth will be told because as he notes the stories being told about him are not the whole truth. He did not kidnap and rape anyone. He wants the world to know his tale – not that he for one minute believes that his words will be read or taken for the truth.Persimmon’s first master was a woman who treated her slaves more compassionately than most. She even went so far as to to teach them to read and write – which was very dangerous. Unfortunately things did not work out there and Persimmon and all of the slaves were sold. He ended up with a man who owns a sugarcane plantation in Louisiana along with some other men and a beautiful woman. This woman, Chloe and Persimmon find a spark between them but their new master has designs on Chloe. Persy goes to the fields and Chloe to the big house where she ostensibly cares for the master’s sick wife but she is there at his beck and call. Despite this Persy and Chloe manage to see each other despite the danger.As the Civil War looms and emancipation is in the air the master hightails it to Texas. Persy has the opportunity to escape but he won’t leave Chloe. This leads to a confrontation with the master that leaves Chloe thinking he is dead. And he nearly is but he is saved and is determined to find her even though he knows nothing more than they are in Texas. The War might have freed the slaves but folks in Texas haven’t quite accepted the reality so Persy has to be careful – he fortunately hooks up with a man who doesn’t care about his color and they head out to work a ranch. They just have to beware the Cherokee who are raiding.Just as Persy learns where Chloe is he gets captured. At this point he about doesn’t care whether he lives or dies. He ends up becoming part of the tribe and this leads to the next chapter of his life. The one where he is the most free.This book was riveting. I had the world’s worst time putting it down and I’m keeping it to read again. As tough as that will be because Ms. Peacock does not spare her readers when dealing with the more difficult aspects of slavery, rape, war, injustice – anything. It’s very well written and not at all gratuitous but it can be difficult to read. To understand how humans can be towards one another. These characters stay with you – they are so well developed they become real. You feel a part of their world and feel their emotions. I will note that the ending is absolutely heartbreaking. It brought tears to my eyes and it took me a while for it to stop invading my thoughts.The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson is a book that will challenge and that will make you think. It’s well worth adding to a library.
    • 4/5
      We first meet Persimmon Wilson as he sits in jail in a small town in Texas waiting to be hanged. Before his death he wants his story known, for pope to know he is not just what he is charged with, to know his story and why he finds himself soon to be at the end of a hangman's noose.I was quite taken with this story,, which is a heart a love story but the reader is also witness to some of America's most shameful incidents of its past. Slavery and the treatment of the American Indian. We watch as Percy, as he is called, meets Chloe when they are both sold to Master Wilson, a sugar cane plantation owner from Louisiana. He and Chloe form an instant connection, but this is complicated by Chloe's light skin and the fact that Wilson intends to make her his bed warmer. Although we know Persy's fate from the beginning, I still wanted food things to happen for these two characters. When the Yankees capture Louisiana, though now supposedly free, their fate is still not in their own hands. We also hear about the Comanche, and a few other tribes because out West in Texas, the freedom of these tribes are coming to an end. Percy's story is a very interesting one and this book is a mix of genres, a slave narrative, a western, an adventure story and a love story. It is written in straightforward prose, just Persy telling his story, but while not dramatically told, the emotions are related in the details. The story is quick moving, as his time on this earth is limited, and mostly chronologically, a welcome form. His story is important, moving and important. He lived much in his short life. ARC from publisher.
    • 4/5
      Persey Wilson is a slave on a sugar plantation who escapes from his master during the Civil War and embarks on a journey across the Texas frontier, searching for the woman he loves and eventually joining the Comanche tribe.Persey is writing down his story on the eve of his hanging (a fact revealed on the first page) in a tiny Texas town called Drunken Bride. As I read, I found myself slowly but surely getting caught up in his story, which begins on a Louisiana plantation and ends in an Indian village on the Texas plains. This novel has a terrific sense of time and place. The details of Persey's difficult life are compelling: the back-breaking labor of cutting sugar cane, enduring the terrible Texas winter storms, first being tortured by and then electing to join the Comanche. It's only then that he finds a sense of place and belonging. This is not a feel-good novel, by any means, but it is a good story, and I'm glad I read it.Book club selection (2014).