Captured in Guinea as a child and sold into slavery in New Orleans, Fanny Grundy gave birth to twenty-two children but was allowed to keep only one. Her story, handed down through the generations as oral history, was told to the author by her paternal grandmother. Lydia English's memoir is a tribute to Fanny, to Fanny's daughter Alice, and to six other women whom Dr. English, an anthropologist, credited with shaping her character.