âMaster of languageâ (The New York Times) John Edgar Wideman uses his unique generational position to explore what he calls the âslaveroad,â offering âa fresh perspective of slaveryâs impact and a confirmation of Widemanâs exalted status in American lettersâ (New York magazine).
John Edgar Widemanâs Slaveroad is a groundbreaking work of âbruising candor and obsessive originalityâ (The Wall Street Journal). For centuries, the buying and selling of human beings was legal, and millions of Africans were kidnapped then forcibly transported across the Atlantic Ocean to serve as slaves. The enduring legacies of this slave road trafficâdenied, unacknowledged, misunderstood, repressedâcontinue to poison the experiences and journeys of all Americans.
In a section of âSlaveroad,â called âSheppard,â William Henry Sheppard, a descendant of enslaved Virginians, travels back to Africa where he works as a missionary, converting Africans to Christianity alongside his Southern white colleague. Wideman imagines drinking afternoon tea with Lucy Gant Sheppard, Williamâs wife, who was on her own slaveroad, as she experienced her husbandâs adultery with the African women he was trying to convert. In âPenn Station,â Widemanâs brother, after being confined forty-four years in prison, travels from Pittsburgh to New York. As Wideman awaits his brother, he asks, âHow will I distinguish my brother from the dead. Dead passengers on the slaveroad.â
âA blend of memoir, fiction, historyâ (The Millions), Slaveroad is a book that will inform, challenge, and surprise Wideman fans as well as newcomers to his writing.
âMaster of languageâ (The New York Times) John Edgar Wideman uses his unique generational position to explore what he calls the âslaveroad,â offering âa fresh perspective of slaveryâs impact and a confirmation of Widemanâs exalted status in American lettersâ (New York magazine).
John Edgar Widem...