Publication

2022 - Putnam, New York

Language

English

Word Count

112,000 words, Guess

Page Count

448 pages

Physical Format

EBook

Identifiers

  • ISBN-100593322894
  • ISBN-139780593322895
  • Goodreads59382065
  • AmazonB096DL11G2
  • Library of Congress Control Number2021041738
and 2 more

Classifications

  • DDC[Fic]
  • LCCPZ7.5.L39

Description

In 1860, long after the United States outlawed the importation of enslaved laborers, 110 men, women and children from Benin and Nigeria were captured and brought to Mobile, Alabama aboard a ship called Clotilda. Their journey includes the savage Middle Passage and being hidden in the swamplands along the Alabama River before being secretly parceled out to various plantations, where they made desperate attempts to maintain both their culture and also fit into the place of captivity to which they’d been delivered. At the end of the Civil War, the survivors created a community for themselves they called African Town, which still exists to this day. Told in 14 distinct voices, including that of the ship that brought them to the American shores and the founder of African Town, this powerfully affecting historical novel-in-verse recreates a pivotal moment in US and world history, the impacts of which we still feel today.

Subjects

Topics

fictionAfricanHistoricalslave tradeblack peoplePeople & PlacesNovels in Verse

Times

Civil War Period (1850-1877)

Other Editions

  • African TowneBookPutnam2022-01-01

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