HEAR the DIRT SING
“Right away, I was drawn into the opening scene, smelled the smoke, sensed the fire, and felt the fear of the 5 Robinson sisters. These women could have been my aunts.” -Tank Gunner, Author
“. . . written in the prose of oral storytelling. The history of Louisiana, the delta, the cotton farming, and the trials of these five women was an incredible story. It told the stories of how racial injustice affected lives back in those early days and how strong women, with faith and love persevered in a man’s world to create a home and a legacy. -Deanna King, Author
“. . . left me reflecting on the enduring power of family bonds and the importance of listening to the stories the earth had to tell.” -Rae
“The Robinson sisters are portrayed with such depth that I felt I was right there with them, battling the societal norms of the early 1900s.” -Zara Brown
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Based on True Events
A fiery cross and a cadre of hooded thugs can’t scare the Robinson sisters away from their land. The five scrappy women, born and raised in the heart of Louisiana cotton country, are not about to quit the farm their ancestors had risked everything to build, rebuild, and preserve.
When Etta May Robinson stumbles over the body of a dead man in one of their fields, a man she knows and fears, the investigation leads to an unexpected reckoning. She has secrets – truths not spoken of in the genteel Southern society of the early 1900s.
Accustomed to hard work in a man’s world, the sisters grapple with a society that holds the opinion a woman’s place is inside the home, not behind a plow. Whether handling a hoe or a shotgun, they’re prepared to defend their way of life from scoundrels, plagues, and Old Man River.
The sisters’ niece, Penny Robinson, a New Orleans journalist, returns to the farm to interview them for a human-interest article, and she learns more about the women who raised her after her father’s tragic accident.
Farm life is harsh, and there are many reasons to sell the land and move away. But the more questions Penny asks, digging into the family history, the more reasons she finds to stay and listen to the dirt sing.
E. B. Shelton blends a love of writing and research with her ancestors’ anecdotes creating memorable stories to educate and entertain.
Read About E. B Shelton.
This free Spotify playlist, customized for Hear the Dirt Sing, features forty-five minutes of acoustic and traditional music. Listen here or on the Spotify app.
Sugarland: Family Stories of the Nadlers and Robertsons in South Louisiana 1888-1911
Sweet, sweet Iberville, Henry mused while scanning the landscape through the open windows of the jostling steam train. From snowy white cotton fields, the flat terrain transitioned to endless fields of giant green sugarcane stalks, dwarfing the fieldworkers like an enchanted forest in a fairytale.
In the time of steam-powered ships, trains and machinery, Henry Nadler and his wife, Jennie moved everything they owned from Illinois to the swampy South Louisiana parish of Iberville. As a skilled machinist, he intended to launch a business partnership with a foundryman he barely knew. He and Jennie were newlyweds and expecting their first child. With no formal education, but with an innate aptitude for designing and building machinery, Henry poured himself into the sugar industry of his new homeland.
In the coming years, the Nadlers’ son would marry into the prominent Robertson family who was well-established in South Louisiana long before the Nadlers arrived. Marshall Pope Robertson, an engineering graduate from LSU, was the son of a U.S. Congressman. His wife, Olive Clare Smith, was the daughter of a veteran Confederate captain.
E. B. Shelton weaves her ancestors’ stories of struggles and fortitude into an inspiring historical tapestry.
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