Gregory a Smith

A Founding Mother: Miss Ruth Gregory a Smith

A Founding Mother fits into the genre of slave narrative. Told in first person, interior monologue, and initially set in the 18th Century. Much of the story is about the foundations of a new country and trying to find one?s place in that new world. As the country develops, so too does Ruth. Uprooted from her native Africa, Ruth recollects facets of her life at times when she most needs something to guide and strengthen her. Through the novel, Ruth is party to many encounters with people like her, people trying to find a place to call home. For Ruth, her quest takes her on a perilous journey across a land where she faces constant danger and reprisal from her former master, whose child she has taken in recompense for her own child being taken from her. Her two other children provide her strength and they motivate her to journey to New York and subsequently New Orleans where she learns to settle and find peace, until her past walks back into her life when she least expects it. Through that drama she finally finds peace amongst those who really care for her and with the comfort of her African heritage.