A major social concern in The Slave is the precarious life that Jews led in seventeenth-century Poland. The Jews periodically endure bloody pogroms incited by Cossacks, including Bohdan Chmielnicki. Singer's protagonist, Jacob, is a slave because his village, Josefbv, has experienced a pogrom, one that has resulted in the death of his wife and two children. After he fortunately escapes with his life, Polish robbers capture him and sell him as a slave to a pagan named Jan Bzik. While working for Bzik, he falls in love with Bzik's daughter, Wanda, and they consummate their love. But while she is out of town, Jews from Josefov locate Jacob; they ransom him and return him to their shtetl (small Jewish town); they rescue him contrary to his desire because he loves Wanda and wishes to remain with her—even as a slave. Courageously risking his life...