Wench

Wench is a historical novel by American author Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Set in the years before the Civil War, it traces the journeys of four slave women whose masters keep them as mistresses. Each summer for several years, they vacation at the Tawana House Resort in the free state of Ohio, where white masters and their black slave mistresses can live openly as if they are partners.

Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet are three slaves whose masters bring them to Tawana House every summer. Regulars at the resort, they have gotten to know one another well. Then, one day, a new slave, Mawu, arrives at Tawana House. With flame-red hair and a firecracker personality to match, she talks of escape, prompting the other three women to seriously consider, for the first time, the confines of their lives and the possibilities that lay in fleeing their captors.

When Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet first meet Mawu, they are immediately drawn to her. She behaves fearlessly, speaks frankly, and is unlike anyone they've ever seen before. Her master, Tip, is exceedingly cruel and subjects her to routine abuse. This sets Mawu in stark contrast to the other three women. Not only have they never entertained the idea of flight, but they've come to enjoy the benefits that come with being the mistress of the master, no matter how enslaved they may be. Their duties on their respective plantations are light; they can count on decent food; and, in some cases, their masters ensure they get an education. In addition, the women have children, and their lofty status as mistresses affords the kids some additional protections and perks as well.



At the same time, the three women understand that if they tried to run away, their masters would likely subject them to the same punishments they would give to any other slave. Even discussing such a notion is often enough to invite harsh punishment from an eavesdropping master. Masters beat slaves who attempt to flee. In some cases, they knowingly sell them to other, crueler masters. Moreover, on more than a few occasions, masters have had no problem killing slaves who try to run.

During her first summer at Tawana House, Mawu, in dire desperation to free herself from Tip, slips away one night into the woods behind the resort. She goes to another resort, this one for free blacks. The people she meets there advise her on how to escape and give her a map of safe houses so she can plot her route to New York. After returning to Tawana House, Mawu wants Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet to join her so the four of them will have each other as they make their way to freedom. However, the others find it too risky and decline to go.

Concerned that Tip will find and kill Mawu if she attempts to run, Lizzie informs her master, Drayle, of Mawu's plan. Lizzie truly loves Drayle and trusts that he won't share this secret with Tip—but he does. Tip, furious, drags Mawu into the resort's courtyard and beats and sodomizes her in front of everyone. After this, the other women keep their distance from Lizzie, and Mawu grows more determined than ever to escape.



Her second summer at Tawana House, Mawu remains enslaved by Tip. Still distrusting Lizzie, the women treat her coldly. Spurned by her friends, Lizzie starts slipping away unnoticed to spend time with Glory, a white abolitionist. Glory gives Lizzie abolitionist literature, which she shares with her friends back at the resort. Gradually, they begin to warm to her again but are still not entirely trustful.

Then, Sweet finds out that an outbreak of cholera rages its way through her plantation back home. Still reeling from the grief of losing an unborn baby the year before, she receives word that all of her surviving children are now dead from cholera. Heartbroken, Sweet goes mad and eventually dies.

This tragedy inspires Mawu and Reenie to form an escape plan. Even Lizzie thinks long and hard about running away, but, as always, her love for Drayle keeps her where she is. One night, Mawu and Tip's cabin bursts into flames. The women save Mawu, though she is badly burnt; Tip escapes largely unscathed. Lizzie figures out that Mawu set the cabin on fire herself in an attempt to kill Tip. Back at her cabin, Reenie nurses Mawu, and the next morning, the two women are gone from Tawana House.



The next summer, Lizzie returns to the resort and meets up with Glory, who takes her to a hideout in the woods. There, Lizzie reunites with Mawu, who has waited for her. Reenie has escaped to New York and is now free, but Mawu couldn't leave Lizzie behind in captivity. Though she can't deny Mawu's love for her and her love for Mawu, Lizzie still cannot flee, and she chooses to stay with Drayle. Mawu runs, but slavecatchers find her on the second day of her flight and return her to Tip, where her punishment could be a beating, or torture, or death.