The Slave

What are we, as human beings, slaves to? Childhood traumas? What someone else decided we should be? An unfulfilling relationship, a job we don't like or the tedious routine of our lives? Mexican writer and spiritual teacher Anand Dilvar's phenomenal book The Slaveis the story of a nameless narrator who is trapped in a vegetative state following a terrible accident that has paralyzed his whole body. Unable to communicate with friends and family, he begins an inner conversation with his spiritual guide, which leads him onto an emotional and raw journey of self-realization. Dilvar's beautiful and reflective story of an unconscious man, who is a slave to the many mistakes and failures he has made in his life, shares with readers lessons that will leave them reflecting long past the final page. As his spiritual guide teaches him lessons on love, failure, suffering and forgiveness, time is ticking: will the doctors decide to pull the plug, or will our narrator get to live one more day for the chance to see his loved ones?

The novel opens with Sangora van Java on the block, a 'Mohametan' slave who is being sold for preaching his belief to others. Andries de Villiers, a hard-nosed wine farmer, purchases Sangora, despite his suspicion that the tall slave could spell trouble. On impulse, he also bids for Sangora's 16-year-old stepdaughter, Somiela, but not for the girl's mother ' thereby separating the family. The first days on Zoetewater are traumatic, but both father and stepdaughter survive and find comfort in the unity amongst the slaves on the farm. It is when Harman Kloot, an Afrikaner of mixed blood, arrives from the interior that a second, major crisis develops: Harman is torn between duty to his group and love of a girl who belongs to a different culture and faith. Whatever decision he makes will be seen as betrayal, either of his own people or of the slave community with whom he has found common ground. The Slave Book presents a microcosm of South African society and of the country's past. Without prejudice, it portrays the different traditions, cultures and faiths of the time, and the tension that resulted from their coexistence. This is the first South African novel to portray the introduction of the Muslim faith to the Cape 'from the inside', so to speak. It does it so well that, on publication in 1999, the book was held up to then-Vice President Mbeki as an example of the tolerance and mutual respect needed in 'one city with many cultures'. The novel is informed by thorough historical research and by a study of the effects of slavery on people. Relevant excerpts introduce the different chapters and inform readers of the different views regarding slavery. Jacobs is a born storyteller who keeps the reader turning the pages.

After many years of research, award-winning historian Hugh Thomas portrays, in a balanced account, the complete history of the slave trade. Beginning with the first Portuguese slaving expeditions, Hugh Thomas describes and analyzes the rise of one of the largest and most elaborate maritime and commercial ventures in all of history. Between 1492 and 1870, approximately eleven million black slaves were carried from Africa to the Americas to work on plantations, in mines, or as servants in houses. The Slave Trade is alive with villains and heroes and illuminated by eyewitness accounts. Hugh Thomas's achievement is not only to present a compelling history of the time, but to answer controversial questions as who the traders were, the extent of the profits, and why so many African rulers and peoples willingly collaborated.

Fleeing from the Chmielnick's massacre, Jacob had been captured and sold to a peasant farmer. Now he lives as a slave and an outcast pulling clunps of grass for the cattle by day & dreaming of Wanda, the gentile daughter of his master, by night.

In 1770, the slave Esperança Garcia bravely penned a letter to the governor of Piauí state, in Brazil, describing how she and her children were being mistreated and requesting permission to return to the farm where the rest of her family was living. Before she wrote her letter, Esperança Garcia lived on a cotton farm run by Jesuit priests, where she learned to read and write — a rare opportunity for a woman, especially a slave. But one day she was separated from her husband and older children and taken with her two little ones to be a cook in the home of Captain Antonio Vieira de Couto, where she and the other slaves were beaten and denied even the freedom to attend church. In despair, Esperança Garcia wrote to the governor about her terrible situation, asking if she and her young children could return to the farm. She waited each day for a reply, never giving up hope. And although she never received an answer, she is remembered today for being the courageous slave who wrote the first letter of appeal in Afro-Brazilian Brazil. Commemorating the date of the letter’s discovery, September 6th has become Black Consciousness Day in Piauí state. Beautifully illustrated, this moving picture book provides a very personal look at the tragic history of slavery in the Americas.

In this interdisciplinary work, Stacy J. Lettman explores real and imagined violence as depicted in Caribbean and Jamaican text and music, how that violence repeats itself in both art and in the actions of the state, and what that means for Caribbean cultural identity. Jamaica is known for having one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world, a fact that Lettman links to remnants of the plantation era—namely the economic dispossession and structural violence that still haunt the island. Lettman contends that the impact of colonial violence is so embedded in the language of Jamaican literature and music that violence has become a separate language itself, one that paradoxically can offer cultural modes of resistance. Lettman codifies Paul Gilroy's concept of the "slave sublime" as a remix of Kantian philosophy through a Caribbean lens to take a broad view of Jamaica, the Caribbean, and their political and literary history that challenges Eurocentric ideas of slavery, Blackness, and resistance. Living at the intersection of philosophy, literary and musical analysis, and postcolonial theory, this book sheds new light on the lingering ghosts of the plantation and slavery in the Caribbean.

In this riveting book, authors and authorities on modern slavery Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter expose the disturbing phenomenon of human trafficking and slavery that exists now in the United States. In The Slave Next Door we find that these horrific human rights violations are all around us; people sold into slavery are often hidden in plain sight: the dishwasher in the kitchen of the neighborhood restaurant, the kids on the corner selling cheap trinkets, the man sweeping the floor of the local department store. In these pages we also meet some unexpected modern-day slave owners, such as a 27-year old middle-class Texas housewife who is currently serving a life sentence for offences including slavery. Weaving together a wealth of voices—from slaves, slaveholders, and traffickers as well as from experts, counselors, law enforcement officers, rescue and support groups, and community leaders—this book is also a call to action, telling what we, as private citizens and political activists, can do to raise community awareness, hold politicians accountable, and finally bring an end to this horrific and traumatic crime.

A retelling absent of the Red Sea For fifteen years, Thom believed he was a prince of Alpenwhist. He had climbed the castle turrets to survey his kingdom, learned to duel with the sharpest blades, and stirred up palace intrigue in disguise. That is, until one day when his identity is suddenly shattered by the revelations of a blind woman: He learns that he isn’t a prince at all, but a wretched slave. In a kingdom where ruthlessness is part of everyday life, Thom fears this new truth could be deadly. He takes flight, running from the life he knew and the one he despises, but the call to free his people beckons him home. Armed with a magic stone, which instructs him through surreal visions, he must topple his once beloved brother who has since become a tyrannical king. A fantastical retelling of the story of Moses, Thom’s adventure forces him to question if he can succeed in his quest without truly understanding who he is. Because it seems he must unravel his past, present, and future before he can let his people free.