Two Rivers: De Trouble I Be See is a historical work in the interpersonal drama subgenre. It is best suited to a mature adult reading audience owing to graphic violence, sexual situations, and explicit language throughout. Penned by Bob Rogers, the story takes us on an emotional and poignant journey through Colleton District, South Carolina, in July 1854. The Tiffany Plantation takes center stage in this intense story, where enslaved people battle for freedom and dignity as those who would continue to hold them captive turn a blind eye to the robbery of African bodies from their graves, being taken for medical research without consent.

Bob Rogers packs so much into this fascinating and heart-breaking novel that it’s hard to know where to start. For me, the standout feature of the work is its ensemble cast and the passion and emotional intelligence that Rogers displays in crafting so many different, realistic, and fully-fleshed-out viewpoints from which we can see the threads of other plots unfolding. I especially had a soft spot for Ella, whose simple desires in life and search for happiness were inspiring and heart-warming despite the lot she had been handed. In addition, I enjoyed the dialogue and dialect Rogers peppers into the narrative to give it those authentic historical and cultural touches that bring South Carolina to the fore of the story. Overall, Two Rivers is intricately penned with much to experience, be intrigued by, and learn from. But, above all, it’s a story about people and the terrible things they do to one another sometimes and how we should all strive to learn from that.

In the novel Two Rivers: De Trouble I Be See, Bob Rogers transports readers back to the mid-19th century American South and a plantation named the Tiffany Plantation. Tiffany's holding goes back generations and throughout time have counted hundreds of Black slaves among their property holdings, and the slaves are valuable to the plantation in both life and death. Posey, a slave who has seen as much in his long life as any ten white men combined, is tapped for his intelligence by James Bosher, a plantation manager always looking to fatten his own pockets and social standing at any cost. Posey knows what needs to be done to maximize rice profit, and also knows that slave graves are being looted and bodies are being sold. As the atrocities committed by James mount, a wave of rebellion washes over the slaves and the only solution that feels right is a reckoning.

“We need to understand what drives such a man before we try to find some meaningful way to destroy him.” Posey is a character that readers will relate to from the moment he makes his presence known in Two Rivers: De Trouble I Be See by Bob Rogers. As a man of color who is of the first generation following the colonial rule of my country of birth, finding a novel about an enslaved man on a massive plantation that is written by a Black author is meaningful to me. Of course, if the book was poorly written this would not matter, but Rogers is an excellent storyteller and his words feel authentic. I am generally averse to dialogue that is written phonetically but Two Rivers is not the same piece of literature without hearing what Posey and all of the other slaves are saying as they would have said it. We know that there is no such thing as a “good” slaveholder and the juxtaposition of the family that owns slaves and those they hire to ensure compliance and a smooth, profitable running of the plantation is not blurry. Posey, James, the many John Tiffanys, and the more ancillary characters lend to the perspective and, when all is said and done, what is right and what is wrong is as straightforward as all things black and white.