Glory Over Everything

Kathleen Grissom’s 2016 historical novel, Glory Over Everything, relates the story of Jamie Pyke, a secondary character in her 2010 bestseller, The Kitchen House. At the end of Grissom’s earlier novel, thirteen-year-old Jamie escapes from Tall Oaks plantation in Virginia shortly after learning that, despite his light-colored skin and upbringing as a white boy, he is “black.” Although Glory begins twenty years later, in 1830, the novel backtracks to reveal how Jamie arrives and thrives in Philadelphia. Events conspire to compel Jamie’s clandestine journey back south, during which he reconciles with his past and discovers his future.

It’s 1830, and James Burton, age thirty-three, enjoys a life of relative privilege as a respected artist in Philadelphia. In reality, however, he was born Jamie Pyke, the son of a black mother enslaved on the plantation of his white father, Marshall Pyke. By virtue of his light complexion, Jamie was raised in the Pyke family by his grandmother, Martha Pyke, who schooled him in reading and social graces. He never suspected that he wasn’t “white,” and, indeed, his grandmother taught him to disparage blacks.

When Jamie was thirteen, Martha died, and Jamie learned that his real mother was a slave named Belle. More shocking still, Marshall and his cruel plantation overseer, Rankin, planned to auction Jamie at the slave market. Jamie killed Marshall and fled North.



Glory chronicles the events of Jamie’s life after he arrives in Philadelphia. He receives help from an ex-slave named Henry, who advises him to “pass” as white. Jamie then finds work as an apprentice for a silversmith, Mr. Burton, and moves into the Burton household. Delia, the black housemaid, takes an immediate dislike to Jamie. Mr. and Mrs. Burton, however, develop a strong affection for him. Several years later, they adopt Jamie, and, thereafter, he becomes James Burton. However, Delia threatens his comfortable life when she finds a letter in his room that reveals his black heritage.

After Mr. Burton dies following a carriage accident, James begins taking art lessons, gaining recognition as a skilled bird illustrator. James and Henry have little contact over the years, as James is leading a white life, but in 1825, Henry appeals to James to employ his young son, Pan, as a servant. James obliges, and he and Pan grow close. Meanwhile, James becomes involved with Caroline, the daughter of the wealthy Cardon family who is trapped in a loveless marriage.

Returning to the narrative’s present, 1830, Pan disappears. Although his father has warned him to stay away from the shipyards, the black boy ventures there alone and is abducted by slave traders. When Henry realizes his son’s plight, he implores James to go down South to rescue Pan. James feels indebted to Henry for helping him survive his early days in Philadelphia, but he’s apprehensive about agreeing to Henry’s request. While he passes for white and has assumed a new identity, James fears he is still wanted by slave catchers. Moreover, the eye patch he has worn since childhood might betray him.



James is alarmed when Caroline discloses she is pregnant. Although his skin tone is light, his child’s could be darker, which would expose his deception to everyone. However, before any baby of questionable complexion can upend James’ life, Caroline’s father does. His discovery that James is involved with Caroline and, even worse, that he’s “black,” outrages him, and he vows to kill James.

With little left to lose, James prepares to travel south in search of Pan. Caroline dies giving birth, and the baby girl is dispatched to James’s care. He arranges for Robert, his loyal servant, to take the baby to Williamsburg to stay with Eleanor Pyke, the granddaughter of his Grandmother Pyke.

Meanwhile, Pan has suffered beatings from the slave traders for being too outspoken. He is detained at a “sick house” on a South Carolina plantation to recover. It so happens that Sukey, a slave James knows from his childhood, takes care of Pan at the plantation known as Southwood. Sukey’s own story is grim. Her young children were sold to another master, and when she protested, her tongue was cut out. Pan tells her his story, and she resolves to help him escape via the Underground Railroad.



James makes his way toward Southwood, having determined Pan’s location. When he encounters Mr. Spencer and introduces himself as an artist, Spencer, a widower, invites him to stay at his home and give his daughters art lessons. Not only is Spencer’s residence near Southwood Plantation, it is also a stop on the Underground Railroad. James soon divulges his real reason for visiting the area, and Spencer offers to help. Adelaide, Spencer’s plucky sixteen-year-old daughter, also joins their rescue operation.

James meets with Bill Thomas, the Southwood overseer, and expresses interest in purchasing Pan and Sukey, who is pregnant again. Thomas refuses to sell them, so Sukey takes it upon herself to smuggle Pan out in Spencer’s wagon. While James and Spencer are considering the best escape routes, Sukey joins them, panic-stricken. Thomas has discovered Sukey’s role in Pan’s getaway. Moreover, he has learned that James is an escaped slave, and now Rankin, the ruthless overseer from Tall Oaks, is on the hunt for him.

Without delay, James, Pan, and Sukey begin their perilous journey to the North. At times, they secure safe passage from compassionate conductors of the Underground Railroad; at other times, they must depend on their own wits, as when they hide from their pursuers in the Great Dismal Swamp. Sukey dies giving birth in a cave, and Pan names her surviving daughter “Kitty.”



Near Williamsburg, Rankin catches up with James, Pan, and Kitty. Following a struggle, James kills Rankin with help from Robert, who was alerted of James’s whereabouts by Spencer. Adelaide is with Robert, too. The party travels on to collect James’s daughter, and then they return to Philadelphia. With Robert’s encouragement, James decides to openly acknowledge his heritage. He adopts Pan and Kitty, and names his daughter Belle, after his mother.

Grissom extensively researched the historic details of her novel. Along with an accurate depiction of the Underground Railroad, Glory Over Everything brings to life Virginia’s forbidding, snake-infested Great Dismal Swamp, where many runaway slaves took refuge. The novel’s title comes from the words of American abolitionist Harriet Tubman.