The Experience of Blackness in the Slave Era

The narrative’s story, characters, and full range of themes are all developed within an overall context that explores the experiences of being black [sic] in the slave era – specifically, the early 1800’s. There are three primary facets to those experiences. First, there is the experience of being black in Africa, which itself has two components. The first is the experience of being Africa’s indigenous culture – that is, a culture defined by tribal structures, tradition, and in the novel’s perspective, a closeness to nature. All this is explored primarily in Book One. The second facet of the book’s exploration of being black in Africa is its consideration of the establishment of Liberia, an African country established, populated, and governed primarily by black ex-slaves. This is explored primarily in Book Two. Both sets of explorations unfold primarily...