Nowhere Else on Earth

by Josephine Humphreys

A North Carolina town struggles to preserve its sanity in 1864 as the Civil War approaches to shatter the peace, its Native American community becomes caught between the marauding Union Army and the desperate Home Guard, a sixteen-year-old Rhoda Strong falls in love with outlaw Henry Berry Lowrie. 40,000 first printing.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Book Club, Civil War, Historical, War, Novels

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2000

About the author

Josephine Humphreys is an American novelist. She won the 1984 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for Dreams of Sleep and has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lyndhurst Prize, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. Nowhere Else on Earth won the Southern Book Award in 2001

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. I think it was easier for me to get into it because I am from the area and know about the Lumbee people. It's based on true people and the most notorious well known Lumbee figure, their version of Robin Hood. It's worth reading but it probably helps to be interested in the culture and history behind it.

[Frederick Bingham · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a poor girl in a community in rural Robeson County NC. It takes place at the end of the Civil War and just afterwards. The main character is a teenager. The region is plagued by 'home guards', men whose job it is to catch deserters and young men who are avoiding military service. There were a lot of them in that part of the country because there was a lot of Union sympathizers. There are also raids by union and confederate bands that roam the countryside, which has turned essentially lawless. The other thing the home guards did was to capture runaway slaves, free blacks and Indians, of which there were many in this part of the world, and send them to work camps. Fort Fisher was built by such people.The main character falls in love with a young man who organizes a band of local youths hiding out in the swamps. They conduct raids and turn into outlaws and rebels against the confederate cause. The corrupt local sheriff tries to find them. In a climactic scene, the young man watches in hiding as the sheriff tortures and then kills his father and brother looking for information. When the war ends, the band stays hidden in the bush, and turns to robbing. Altogether this is a fine book. The only problem I had was keeping track of the characters. There were too many for the casual reader to keep track of despite the genealogical trees displayed in the front cover. It is also a little difficult to follow, especially when there is a scene with a lot of action.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exquisitely written story of a North Carolina backwater caught between forces of the American Civil War, told through the eyes of a Lumbee Indian girl. Josephine Humphrey's descriptive writing style is a feast for readers - every page a gift. I'm so grateful to have come across this now-obscure novel.

[Sierra Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The moment I opened this up I was wholly transported into the story of Rhoda Strong, a young girl coming of age as a mixed-race Lumbee Native American. Set in a settlement called Scuffletown during the Civil War, the novel follows the hardships of those who, as neither white nor black, slipped through the cracks of the American legal system, relying, rather, on gangs, guns, and kinship for protection.

I was about halfway through this fantastic work of fiction when I discovered that it wasn’t just fiction, but a researched account of a central Lumbee historical figure! Not only was the main character I was so invested in a real person, but Scuffletown a real settlement - now Pembroke, North Carolina!

After my epiphany, I could not put this down. As someone who’s lived in North Carolina my entire life, I’m so glad I happened upon this somewhat obscure novel and got to learn about a piece of NC history (and an entire ethnic group) that I never otherwise would have known.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written book. Humphreys clearly loves words and it was a pleasure to read her descriptions and her characters. While this is not a fast-moving book, it has a great sense of place and time and transports you there as the reader.

As with many good characters, the narrator, Rhoda and her love, Henry, are flawed. Flawed characters are wonderful because they remind me of how flawed we all are - how we all make good choices and bad ones and pray that our bad ones don't hurt ourselves or others too deeply. While I thought the characters were well-written and thought provoking, I'm not sure I ever knew them very well. While that would often be a strike against a book, I think in this book it is a testament to the writing that we don't know the characters better - they kept their true selves hidden from each other as well.

This book is set in the swamps of North Carolina, a murky, muddy area. Because this book is so well-written, the narrative felt at times a bit murky and muddy. You couldn't always see exactly where the author was going until you were there, just like the trails the characters follow through the NC terrain.

If you're looking for a read that will challenge you and transport you, this is a good choice.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have a rule that I have to read 100 pages of a box before I decide whether to continue or to pitch it. I decided to throw in the towel - this book just wasn't worth my time. I found that the author did a poor job of character development. After 100 pages, I was still wondering who's who, and in fact I really didn't care.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I want to read the history behind it now that I've read the fictionalized version.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suffice to say, this is one of the best reads ever. My words are mere coarse scratchings compared to hers, so no review this time.

[Jim Grimsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading Josephine Humphreys since her first novel came out, too many years ago to think about, and remember hearing her speak about her fascination with this tale. So I know that she worked for years on the research and other matter necessary to create this book, and the result is a fine, thoughtful novel that shows her to be at the top of her form. Since I grew up in eastern North Carolina I knew something of the Lumbee people and their struggle to find an identity; but her depiction of the love of Rhoda Strong for Henry Lowrie, her husband, gave such force to the novel. This is a tale that needed telling, a people coming together to resist a war they wanted nothing to do with. Too little is said about southerners who wanted nothing to do with secession, especially if it entailed the fighting of armies, but they got no choice in the matter. Too little is said about people like the Lumbee, who were collateral damage in the whole bitter mess. This story is at the intersection of slavery, war, native peoples, and poor people scraping by on the land, and the couple at the heart of the story embodies the kind of courage and tragedy that overtook so many in that time. It is a brave leap from her earlier work to this complex project, and solidified Humphreys as one of the great voices of our generation of writers.

[Karen Hogan · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF. A historical fiction about a half Scottish, half lumbee Indian girl in the Carolinas during the civil war. The pace was too slow for me, I had difficulty following all of the various characters, and finally did not care enough about the protagonists to continue.

[Andrea]

dnf

i gave it 100 pp--more than enough! never engaged so...

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not realize until I had already finished the book and read the Author's Note at the back that this novel is based on a true story! Henry Berry Lowrie, the novel's central male character and center of interest, actually lived and did the things described in Ms. Humphreys' book, living as a member of an outlaw gang out of the forests of Robeson County, a kind of Robin Hood to his own people. Nowhere Else on Earth, told from the perspective of Rhoda Strong, his eventual bride, follows the fortunes (mostly misfortunes) of Scuffletown, an unofficial settlement of Lumbee Indians in North Carolina during the Civil War. As the characters eventually discover, they are probably descendants of a local Indian tribe and the missing English settlers of Roanoke colony whom they took in. Not much is made of this revelation in the story, though there's a feeling that that is proper. Nothing in the lives of the Scuffletowners — their poverty, their Indian origins, etc. — is sensationalized or romanticized. In fact, if I had one main criticism, it would be that there is hardly any romance in the book, save in the modern sense. I felt that the first half could have been dramatically shortened, as the main incidents of the plot do not occur until later on, and when they do come, they pass by too quickly. I think the problem is that the author wanted to write a nonfiction treatment of this intriguing area and its history, in the form of a novel. I did not get the feeling of the lushness and richness of history which I usually get in historical novels that I love. And much was made of Rhoda's family's experience early on, only for most of these characters to disappear into the background once she marries Henry. Don't get me wrong, the characters (especially Henry) and their situations and their choices and actions were all very interesting. I just felt that there was a certain something missing. I'd recommend it for lovers of Southern fiction, and for enthusiasts of the Civil War, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it for general reading — though I am glad I read it, and do think it worth the time.

[Bronwyn Rykiert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the swampy, piney backwoods of North Carolina at the close of the Civil War in 1864, Josephine Humphreys' passionate, beautifully written novel evokes a time of struggle and helplessness in a proud insular community whose members trace their ancestry back to the Indians. Derisively dubbed Scuffletown by its "mack" neighbours (Scottish farmers mostly), known as "the settlement" to its inhabitants, the area subsists on turpentine manufacture, which has come to a halt with the war.

The story is told by Rhoda Strong who recalls those days of upheaval, tragedy and love from the vantage point of her middle years. She was 16, daughter of a stalwart Scuffletown woman and an outsider, a Scot, weaned from drinking by his wife and subject to bouts of depression.

As the story opens, Rhoda's mother, Cee, keeps the family inside their one-room, windowless cabin in the heat of summer to protect them, especially Rhoda's two brothers, from the Home Guard. The Home Guard is made up of "mack" neighbours, determined to spare their own boys by conscripting Scuffletown youth for forced labour at the Confederate forts and salt works.

It's a lawless time in the backcountry and the sadistic head of the Home Guard rules with impunity. After two boys are killed escaping from the work gangs, Scuffletown's young men take to the woods, under the leadership of Henry Berry Lowrie, a charismatic, focused young man admired by the whole community, secretly loved by Rhoda. Cee is against the match, though she believes Henry "could turn out to be the best we've got. The best we've ever seen." But since when does a girl ever take her mother's advice on a husband?

Eventually Sherman's March brushes Scuffletown, incidentally disrupting the Home Guard's final murdering rampage. The rampage's aftermath makes Henry a permanent outlaw with a price on his head, leaving Rhoda waiting.

It was a different story to what I usually read and at the end of it I wondered if it was a true story or not, it was so compelling.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I could have enjoyed this book more. From the very first it drew me in and I felt myself wrapped up by the story. Being a native of South Carolina and of Cherokee indian descent I thoroughly enjoyed reading this fictional account of Indian life in North Carolina during and shortly after the Civil War.

I would 100% recommend this book, especially if you are at all interested in history.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t even bother to finish this book. Was so looking forward to reading it but it was slow and hard to follow. Nothing in it held my interest and considering I love history and different cultures I was surprised.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Constant Reader discussion:

http://web.archive.org/web/2007082315...

[Vernelle Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Ms. Humphreys' greatest novel. The intimate dialouge transports one to that faraway time and place. I felt like I could reach out and touch the main character.

[Vivian Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOWED! Loved this book.

[Denise Westlake · Rating 4 out of 5]

"when there's no food and no law, war don't stay where it's meant to stay but spreads wilder and meaner out on the fringes".

VERY hard to read such sadness- but an A+ book!

[Rebecca Beck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Although fictional (speculative non-fiction really), it illustrated what my ancestors may have gone through at the time. A very personal favorite!

[Pammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an amateur genealogist, I'm immediately drawn to any novel that starts with a complete family tree on its inside covers. Ms Humphreys takes us back to the mid 1860's and introduces us to the folks living in Robeson County in North Carolina. The indians community has lived along with the whites and free blacks and the resultant mixtures of all three. Along comes the Civil War and the relative peace the citizens along this Lumbee River have enjoyed comes to an abrupt end.
We learn about the family relationships and histories, about the evils battle and conflicts and bigotries bring to communities.
We learn about love and loyalty and honor. This is an exceptional story about a forgotten people and its forgotten history.

[Doris Powell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had difficulty following this novel. It seemed somewhat disjointed. Plus I feel that, if I lived in the Lumberton, NC area, I might have understood it better. And I question some of the parts of the story. What mother is going to take her small children to a public hanging of a man? I found that hard to believe. Plus, what mother leaves her children at home by themselves and goes with her husband to rob a house in the middle of the night. These happenings just don't ring true to motherhood. I have read other reviews of this book and found very good ratings, but is just can't go along with them.

[LISA V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting

I very much like Rhoda, a strong and interesting representation of someone of indigenous descent. The community is lively and so much the picture of a rural small town. Set against the near but not there Civil War, their struggles and strengths are very human as well as so much more. The early chapters don't seem like they give needed information, but Humphreys makes sure no detail is superfluous.

[Maria Calipari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. To read such a wonderfully recount of what was a living hell for some and a struggle, yet a force of strength and determination for others was mind boggling. A love stronger than many would understand. Not only for a man, but for your roots, your people, your home.
Thank you for bringing me to a swamp where people moved with each other.

[Kate Vassallo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book, and thought the writing was excellent. I also really enjoyed it because it was about Robeson County. Unfortunately, I found some of the threads of the story hard to follow.

[LowcountrySC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josephine Humphries at her best!

I lived in Fayetteville North Carolina back in 1994 and worked in Laurinburg so I travel through Robeson county every day. Loved reading about the history of the people there. Josephine reels you into the story and takes you back in time.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew nothing oaf the Lumbee community in eastern North Carolina before I read this hugely affecting book. Also, I had not given much thought to the dilemma of civilians during the Civil War trying to hold onto their neutrality.

[Billie Atkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes place in Robeson County, North Carolina during the Civil War. The main character is Rhoda and her husband, Henry Berry Lowrie. Even though it is historical fiction, it is worth reading
about the Lumbee Indians and the struggles they endured.

[Madison B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning, romantic descriptions about one of North Carolina's most rural areas during the Civil War. An excellent example of riveting historical fiction, and a reminder that all Civil War books don't have to be set in the North Carolina mountains.

[Cindy Conlan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but it was hard to follow at times because I did not understand some of the culture and history behind the warring factions.