“The drums boomed unceasingly, beating the rhythm of change bounding across Skidaway Island—change to the lives of every poor soul rooted in sand on the fragile, wind-swept island.” Geechees Lizzie and her daughter Dicie suffer as enslaved cotton field workers on the sub-tropical island. Dicie’s beloved father is sold to a rice planter, ripping the family apart. The Geechees rejoice in 1865 when General Sherman captures Savannah and sets them free, but his Field Order No. 15 (40 acres and a mule) confiscates the land mother and daughter farm. One thousand black men rush to Skidaway Island to claim Lizzie and Dicie’s home and crops. Her father returns, but relations between her parents break down, even before he embarks on a wild scheme to make money. Will Lizzie’s clandestine ability to understand numbers get her killed? Will family secrets foil Dicie’s chances with the handsome young drummer on the next plantation? To survive, Dicie must master the ancient African magic practiced by her mother. Geechees call the rituals “rooting,” but others call them witchcraft. Against the turmoil of Civil War and Reconstruction, a young girl struggles to preserve her family and to find love. "Karen Dove Barr's second novel, Night's a Shadow; Day's a Shine , about Geechee life during the Reconstruction following the Civil War, is the perfect sequel to Karen Dove Barr's first novel, Burnt Pot Island . A historian with an incredible talent for personalizing one of the most difficult periods in our history, she brings alive the many difficulties experienced in the past by those seeking to make their way on beautiful Skidaway Island, Georgia, where she now still lives." --Rosemary Daniell, author of Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex and Suicide in the Deep South " Night's a Shadow; Day's a Shine is a moving story about struggle, heartache, and moments of beauty on a secluded island plantation in coastal Georgia. It immerses readers the rhythms and rituals of Geechee life in the years leading to Emancipation." --Alexia Fernández Campbell, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Investigative Reporter "An epic work! Dicie's story explores a period in American history when fear and oppression ruled the day. Not a topic taught in Savannah's schools, Karen Dove Barr's rich research about slavery reveals a dark side of America becoming a nation. The novel provides a vivid description of enslaved Africans living on Skidaway Island who were freed in 1865." --Linda Brown, Owner, ALPHA Consulting and Civil Medication Service Karen Dove Barr is a native Georgian and a Skidaway Island resident. She earned a BA from Mercer University and a JD from John Marshall Law School, then practiced law in Savannah for forty-eight years. Dove Barr is the author of Burnt Pot Island, about Skidaway's history during Prohibition. Because of her extensive research of General Sherman's Field Order No. 15, she was consulted for National Public Radio's documentary 40 Acres and a Lie.