This essay examines the particularity of historical fiction as a tool for rectifying the gaps distorting our understanding of the history of enslavement. Specifically, I explore Tiya Miles’ representation of enslaved women in the context of Cherokee slaveholding in her 2015 The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts. This novel is part of the redemptive literary tradition of Black women’s liberatory narratives that, since its conception in the 1970s, has worked to redress the myriad gaps in the historical archives. Miles’ concern with Cherokee participation in the history of enslavement reflects the most recent expression of the shifting historiography influencing the arc of this literary tradition. My analysis thus takes an interdisciplinary approach, demonstrating the imbrication of historical fiction and historical scholarship. Citing the example of The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts, this essay argues that historical fiction provides a particularly intimate representation of enslaved women’s experiences under a Cherokee enslaver. Miles explores Indigenous participation without allocating blame, revealing through the complex junctures of gender and race that the power dynamic of oppressor and oppressed cannot be categorized simply by race.