Although I don’t know exactly where my great-great-grandparents met, I do know what became of them. They eventually settled in a “colored” neighborhood in Florida and, despite Henry being a white man, integrated themselves into that community. He worked as a blacksmith, they built a home, and she bore eight children, including my great-grandmother.

Looking back, it’s fascinating to see how the past shapes our present. Without their decision to choose love in a world mired in extreme prejudice, I wouldn’t be here and would not have written this book that honors them.

Discussion Questions

1. The title, A More Perfect Union, is taken from the first line of the US Constitution, “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.” How do you think the title refers to Sarah and Henry’s situation? How does it refer to the country at large?

2. Both Henry and the overseer are attracted to Sarah when they see her, but Henry sees her humanity while the overseer sees her as an object. How has Henry’s Irish background contributed to the way he sees Sarah and the other enslaved people at Jubilee? How has his background blinded him to her full reality as a slave?

3. The book is told through Sarah’s, Henry’s, and Maple’s points of view. Were you able to see Maple as a sympathetic character? What do you think including Maple’s point of view adds to the story?

4. When Sarah and Henry meet, Sarah is much more hesitant about allowing their relationship to blossom. If Henry had initially understood the extent of the difficulties they would face in the way that Sarah did, do you think he would have pursued the relationship?

5. Initially, Henry feels justified in making the chains and feels Sarah’s response is an overreaction. He comes to understand that, although his involvement in the institution of slavery by making chains is very small, he is complicit. Simply loving Sarah does not change his mind. What does?

6. In some ways, Matthew Johnson and Henry are similar characters. Both consider themselves to be good, decent men, though both have engaged in questionable actions for the sake of economic gain. Matthew Johnson enslaved people for profit; Henry helped destroy a widow’s home, stole clothes from a dying man, and fled New York with the murdered blacksmith’s forge and horses. Yet they are also very different. How would you compare the morality of the two characters?

7. What role does religion play in excusing slavery in this story? What role does religion play in opposing it? How does Matthew Johnson use religion to object to Sarah and Henry’s relationship? How does that compare to Father Michael teaching Henry that “Jesus was always flapping on about loving people”?

8. Sarah explains to Henry about the emotional conflict caused by growing attached to a child you helped raise and knowing that this same child will eventually own you as property and have dominion over your life (Chapter 36). To what extent do you see this conflict played out in Bessie and in Maple? To what extent do Miss Martha and Master also have a conflicted relationship to the enslaved women who raised them?