Altogether Different: A Memoir About Identity, Inheritance, and the Raid That Started the Civil War

If you could choose between being Black and being white, what would you do? As a child, Brianna Wheeler, the mixed-race descendent of Dangerfield Newby-the first of John Brown's raiders to die at Harpers Ferry in their bid to end slavery- unconsciously chose whiteness, unaware that she had the choice at all. As an adult, following the deaths of her mother and grandmother, Brianna struggled with her own identity, convinced that her lasting legacy would be the rejection of her own Blackness. Then, in 2020, a racial reckoning rekindled her connection to both her heritage and her grandmother's lifelong work of preserving the stories of Dangerfield and the rest of her ancestors, leading Brianna to confront both long-held family dynamics and her own place in history-from a new perspective. A unique blend of memoir, creative nonfiction and illustration, "Altogether Different" untangles the complex connections between the stories we tell ourselves and the histories preserved for us.