Historical Fiction · TenseIn 1830, a freed slave in debt stows away on a ship bound for Africa to buy captives
Middle Passage
A freed slave runs from his debts onto a ship that is heading to Africa to take captives
Rutherford Calhoun is a freed slave in New Orleans in 1830. He owes money to Papa Zeringue, and a schoolteacher named Isadora Bailey persuades Zeringue that she will pay Calhoun's debts if he marries her. To escape, Calhoun drinks heavily, meets the ship's cook and stows away on the Republic. He is discovered and put to work without pay, and he learns that the ship is going to Africa to capture Allmuseri people for sale as slaves in America.
More about this book
Who
Rutherford Calhoun, a freed slave, the ship's captain Ebenezer Falcon, the first mate Peter Cringle, and the cook Josiah Squibb. Allmuseri people are held on board.
World
New Orleans and an illegal American slave ship on the Middle Passage, in 1830.
What makes it different
It is a historical novel that follows an illegal slave ship on the Middle Passage.
Feel
Tense and adventurous. It won the 1990 National Book Award for Fiction.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- Middle PassageWikipedia