Black writing

Slavery & the Slave Trade

(incl. novels by non-black authors)

Adams, Richard [UK]

Daniel
Wrecking Ball Press, 2006
Born in 1759, Daniel is a slave exposed to the miseries of life on a plantation in the U.S. Expelled by his master, he is brought to England by a fake clerk, and Daniel eventually finds himself in the care of a respectable family. But when he signs up for a journey on a slave ship, he speaks out against the 'abominable practice'.

Bedford, Simi

Not with silver
 
Abiola is a clever young warrior in West Africa, part of a highly developed, ritualised society, rich not only in trade but in metaphorical and spiritual understanding. But neither his prowess nor the sophistication of his culture can save him from betrayal, capture and being sold into slavery.

Chase-Riboud, Barbara [USA]

Sally Hemmings
Virago, 2002
Based on historical fact, recreating the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemmings, who bore him seven children, this novel explores the intricate nature of love, hate and freedom from different viewpoints.

Crooks, Paul [UK]

Ancestors Black
Amber Books, 2002
In the search for his family tree, uprooted by the inhumanity of slavery, Crooks spent 11 years researching his ancestry, undertaking an amazing journey from suburban north London to Jamaica to the Gold Coast of Africa where it all began.

Gregory, Philippa [UK]

A respectable trade
HarperCollins, 1996
Bristol in 1787 is booming. Josiah Cole, a small dockside trader, is prepared to gamble everything to join the big players of the city. But he needs a well connected wife. Frances finds her life and fortune dependent on the respectable trade. Into her new life comes Mehuru, from opposite ends of the slave trade, Mehuru and Frances confront each other and their need for liberty

Gurley-Highgate, Hilda

Sapphire's grave
Broadway, 2004
Born to a woman taken from Sierra Leone and forced into slavery, Sapphire has inherited her mother's strength and defiant spirit. Despite a life of poverty and oppression, she bears several daughters, and when tragedy strikes, her strength spawns a legend that will inspire future generations of women.

Jones, Edward P. [USA]

The known world
Harper Perennial, 2004 
Masterful, Pulitzer-prize winning literary epic about the painful and complex realities of slave life on a Southern plantation. An utterly original exploration of race, trust and the cruel truths of human nature, this is a landmark in modern literature.

McBride, James

Song yet sung
Sceptre, 2008
Liz Spocott, a beautiful young runaway slave, suffers a nasty head wound just before being nabbed by a posse of slave catchers. She falls into a coma and when she awakes she can see the future in her dreams. Liz's visions help her and her fellow slaves escape, but soon there are new dangers on her trail.

Morrison, Toni [USA]

Beloved
Picador Pan, 1988, Vintage, 1997
Ebony Reads top 25 title 
It's the mid-1800s. At Sweet Home in Kentucky, an era is ending as slavery comes under attack from the abolitionists. The worlds of Halle & Paul D. are to be destroyed in a cataclysm of agony & torment. The world of Sethe is to turn to violence & death.

Mercy
Chatto, 2008
Set in America in the 1680s, 'A Mercy' reveals what lies under the surface of slavery. At its heart, this is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter - a mother who cuts off her daughter, to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.

Phillips, Caryl [St. Kitts/UK]

Crossing the river
Vintage, 2006
This text tracks two brothers and a sister on their separate journeys through different times: one as a missionary to Liberia in the 1830s, one a pioneer on a wagon trail to the American West, and one a GI posted to a Yorkshire village in WWII.

Higher ground 
Vintage, 2006
In Higher Ground Caryl Phillips presents three characters separated by time and distance but united by the profound sympathy Caryl Phillips has for their humanity.

Straight, Susan

A million nightingales
Anchor, 2007

Tademy, Lalita [USA]

Cane River
Headline, 2001 
Set among the plantations in deepest Louisiana, this novel follows the lives of four generations of women from the time of slavery in the early 1800s, through the Civil War and into the early years of the 20th century.

Red River
Headline Review, 2006
Recalling the experiences of her father's family after the Civil War, Lalita Tademy reveals the true stories of a dramatic and sometimes painful existence.

Unsworth, Barry

Sacred hunger
Penguin, 2000
Sacred Hunger covers a period between 1752 and 1765. It concerns the entangled and conflicting fortunes of two cousins: Erasmus Kemp, the son of a Lancashire merchant, and Matthew Paris, a scholar and surgeon just released from prison.

White, Michael C.

Soul catcher
Quercus, 2007
The epic tale of a slave catcher and a young woman on the run on the eve of the Civil War. It is the story of an unforgettable journey, one of hardship and redemption, an odyssey that will change the travellers forever