Previously published as Birdsong by Thomas S. Inman

A forged note. A poisoned cup. A legal system inventing America’s future racial strife.

Njila Mwana a Hosi has survived slavery and won his freedom; he’s acquired land and built a home with the woman he loves — Beth, his English wife.

Then Beth is poisoned.

A forged note points toward Njila. To clear his name, he faces colonial justice rendered by the Governor and English planters. In a colony turning racial differences into law, Njila discovers that innocence may not be sufficient.

Among the tobacco fields and towering pines of the Virginia Colony, Birdsong’s Law brings the African American experience and the lives of Native Americans into a compelling historical mystery. This emotional, thought-provoking work combines the intimacy of literary fiction with the urgency of a man’s fight to keep his freedom.

For readers of historical fiction and Southern literature, it offers a powerful encounter with Black history, Southern history, and the beginnings of race in America.

Njila’s story is fictional.
—The forces shaping him are not.

Author’s Note

Years of reconstructing Virginia land patents brought me close to the human experience behind American history: who could own land, whose marriage received protection, and whose identity made freedom precarious.

I read the colony’s earliest documents line by line, ridge by ridge, and ford by ford. Discussions with early Virginia scholars and tribal leaders informed the book’s cultural perspectives and its treatment of Native American culture and traditions.

African American and Native American history meet in this story of love and racial injustice. Its social commentary takes shape through relationships tested by growing racial animus. I wrote Birdsong’s Law to explore the courage required to stay human when the law is learning how to erase you.

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