Scraps from the Master’s Table

Abstract

This thesis is a novel about Leda, a young woman who inherits a journal written by her earliest known ancestor, a former American slave who fought on the side of the British during the American Revolutionary War, and what she determines to do with the information she uncovers. As Leda discovers the history behind secret recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation, she learns about John Cranwell who wrote extensively about his own history and about a people forced to eat inferior foods “scraps from the master’s table.” After Leda embarks on a journey to America to determine what happened to the brother John Cranwell left behind, she discovers that over two hundred years later, black people in the south continue to eat the scraps. Leda learns even more about herself as she prepares to embrace her long lost relatives. The problem is that they are nothing like her. Will they be willing to accept her and this aspect of their past?