So North Carolina has a personality, South Carolina, Georgia. In this case, I've come up with a different culture for every state that she moves through as she moves north. Of course, there is the racism of the 19th century and especially the slave catchers who were chasing after her.ĬW: I think a story of an escape from a plantation is an adventure story. But just as she's sort of developing this internal power, the forces all around her are closing in. I mean, some sense of agency when she's had none. SP: And so this becomes a story of how Cora starts to gain some control over her own life. So just being able to run from the plantation and aim herself north towards the moon, she's a formidable personality. It takes a unique personality to contemplate being able to leave the plantation, a certain kind of bravery and strength that I'm not sure I would have had if I was in her place 150 years ago. But her mother, Mabel, has run away years before, and she exists on the plantation as a stray, someone with no family, and is forced to fend for herself. How would you describe her?Ĭolson Whitehead: She's been described to me as a badass, which I find endearing. Steve Paulson: So, Cora, your main character, is a third-generation slave, and until she escapes when she's 15, she has never known any kind of life except that brutal life on the plantation that she's lived on. This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity. "I was not going to stick to the facts, but I was going to stick to the truth," Whitehead told Steve Paulson when describing the origins of his novel for "To the Best of Our Knowledge." And the main character, Cora, is an escaped slave who sets out on an epic journey of survival and liberation.
In Whitehead’s reimagined alternative history, the underground railroad is an actual train system, with locomotives and conductors. The New York Times calls it " transfixing" and "perhaps the most widely anticipated television series about slavery since 'Roots’ debuted in 1977." "The Underground Railroad" has been adapted for a 10-hour Amazon series, and it’s getting rave reviews. He won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for " The Underground Railroad" and, remarkably, landed another Pulitzer for his next novel, " The Nickel Boys."Īnd now? He’s on top of the cultural world. A few years ago, Colson Whitehead was another well-regarded mid-career writer, admired for his innovative, genre-bending novels.
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