The Prodigy Slave, Book One

The Prodigy Slave, Book One
Author: Londyn Skye
Publisher:
Total Pages: 478
Release: 2020-11
Genre:
ISBN: 9780578240398

At the age of nine, Lily is forcefully torn from her mother's arms and sold at a Negro auction by her master, a man that Lily learns that day is her very own father. Seeking solace from such devastation, Lily secretly begins teaching herself to play her new master's piano: an instrument that she is forbidden from touching. Lily becomes an extraordinary pianist and gets away with secretly playing for fourteen years until the master's son, James, discovers her deceit. The "punishment" that James gives Lily starts her on an unprecedented journey that dramatically alters her life and influences the lives of thousands, including a man with great power. Lily's groundbreaking journey also unveils the secret altruistic love of a particular man who has been forbidden from expressing his love to her for years. But the question remains whether or not the strength of his love will be powerful enough to free Lily from the shackles of slavery and protect her dreams and her life while on her turbulent Journey to Winter Garden.

The Prodigy Slave

The Prodigy Slave
Author: Londyn Skye
Publisher:
Total Pages: 502
Release: 2017-08
Genre: African American women
ISBN: 9781684192618

At the age of ten, Lily is forcefully torn from her mother's arms and sold at a Negro auction by her master, a man that Lily learns that day is her very own father. Seeking solace from such devastation, Lily secretly begins teaching herself to play her new master's piano: an instrument that she is forbidden from touching. Lily becomes an extraordinary pianist and gets away with secretly playing for fourteen years until the master's son, James, discovers her deceit. The "punishment" that James gives Lily starts her on an unprecedented journey that dramatically alters her life and influences the lives of thousands, including a man with great power. Lily's groundbreaking journey also unveils the secret altruistic love of a particular man who has been forbidden from expressing his love to her for years. But the question remains whether or not the strength of his love will be powerful enough to free Lily from the shackles of slavery and protect her dreams and her life while on her turbulent Journey to Winter Garden.

The Prodigy Slave, Book Three

The Prodigy Slave, Book Three
Author: Londyn Skye
Publisher:
Total Pages: 600
Release: 2020-11
Genre:
ISBN: 9780578240411

The turbulent tale of James and Lily's lives' resumes the morning after Lily's gallant effort to escape and continue pursuing her musical dreams. The aftermath reveals who has survived that fateful night and who is now left to cope with tremendous loss. The tragic loss of one life leads to the discovery of a buried secret. The astonishing revelation causes the past and present to collide, alters minds, and transforms bitter enemies into trusted allies. Together, a newly united front brazenly breaks laws and commit treachery as they embark on a daring quest to achieve one truly precious goal, one whose outcome will ultimately determine the grand finale in the saga of The Prodigy Slave.WARNING: This book series features graphic violence, explicit sexual content, extreme profanity, and racial slurs. Reader discretion is advised.

Slaves of New York

Slaves of New York
Author: Tama Janowitz
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1986
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0671745247

Short stories of life in New York during the 1980's.

Damn Near White

Damn Near White
Author: Carolyn Marie Wilkins
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2010-10-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0826272401

Carolyn Wilkins grew up defending her racial identity. Because of her light complexion and wavy hair, she spent years struggling to convince others that she was black. Her family’s prominence set Carolyn’s experiences even further apart from those of the average African American. Her father and uncle were well-known lawyers who had graduated from Harvard Law School. Another uncle had been a child prodigy and protégé of Albert Einstein. And her grandfather had been America's first black assistant secretary of labor. Carolyn's parents insisted she follow the color-conscious rituals of Chicago's elite black bourgeoisie—experiences Carolyn recalls as some of the most miserable of her entire life. Only in the company of her mischievous Aunt Marjory, a woman who refused to let the conventions of “proper” black society limit her, does Carolyn feel a true connection to her family's African American heritage. When Aunt Marjory passes away, Carolyn inherits ten bulging scrapbooks filled with family history and memories. What she finds in these photo albums inspires her to discover the truth about her ancestors—a quest that will eventually involve years of research, thousands of miles of travel, and much soul-searching. Carolyn learns that her great-grandfather John Bird Wilkins was born into slavery and went on to become a teacher, inventor, newspaperman, renegade Baptist minister, and a bigamist who abandoned five children. And when she discovers that her grandfather J. Ernest Wilkins may have been forced to resign from his labor department post by members of the Eisenhower administration, Carolyn must confront the bittersweet fruits of her family's generations-long quest for status and approval. Damn Near White is an insider’s portrait of an unusual American family. Readers will be drawn into Carolyn’s journey as she struggles to redefine herself in light of the long-buried secrets she uncovers. Tackling issues of class, color, and caste, Wilkins reflects on the changes of African American life in U.S. history through her dedicated search to discover her family’s powerful story.

The Last Runaway

The Last Runaway
Author: Tracy Chevalier
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2013-01-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101606649

New York Times bestselling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring and At the Edge of the Orchard Tracy Chevalier makes her first fictional foray into the American past in The Last Runaway, bringing to life the Underground Railroad and illuminating the principles, passions and realities that fueled this extraordinary freedom movement. Honor Bright, a modest English Quaker, moves to Ohio in 1850--only to find herself alienated and alone in a strange land. Sick from the moment she leaves England, and fleeing personal disappointment, she is forced by family tragedy to rely on strangers in a harsh, unfamiliar landscape. Nineteenth-century America is practical, precarious, and unsentimental, and scarred by the continuing injustice of slavery. In her new home Honor discovers that principles count for little, even within a religious community meant to be committed to human equality. However, Honor is drawn into the clandestine activities of the Underground Railroad, a network helping runaway slaves escape to freedom, where she befriends two surprising women who embody the remarkable power of defiance. Eventually she must decide if she too can act on what she believes in, whatever the personal costs.

Netslaves

Netslaves
Author: Bill Lessard
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

A funny, horrifying, compulsively readable expose of the cyber-sweatshop culture--a riveting read for anyone who is fascinated by the new Web society.

The Prophets

The Prophets
Author: Robert Jones, Jr.
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2021-01-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593085701

Best Book of the Year NPR • The Washington Post • Boston Globe • TIME • USA Today • Entertainment Weekly • Real Simple • Parade • Buzzfeed • Electric Literature • LitHub • BookRiot • PopSugar • Goop • Library Journal • BookBub • KCRW • Finalist for the National Book Award • One of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year • One of the New York Times Best Historical Fiction of the Year • Instant New York Times Bestseller A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence. Isaiah was Samuel's and Samuel was Isaiah's. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow slave—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master's gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel's love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation's harmony. With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr., fiercely summons the voices of slaver and enslaved alike, from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating slave master to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminates in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets fearlessly reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.

Wake

Wake
Author: Rebecca Hall
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2021-06-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1982115203

A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and The Washington Post Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour de force that tells the “powerful” (The New York Times Book Review) story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Hall’s efforts to uncover the truth about these women warriors who, until now, have been left out of the historical record. Women warriors planned and led revolts on slave ships during the Middle Passage. They fought their enslavers throughout the Americas. And then they were erased from history. Wake tells the “riveting” (Angela Y. Davis) story of Dr. Rebecca Hall, a historian, granddaughter of slaves, and a woman haunted by the legacy of slavery. The accepted history of slave revolts has always told her that enslaved women took a back seat. But Rebecca decides to look deeper, and her journey takes her through old court records, slave ship captain’s logs, crumbling correspondence, and even the forensic evidence from the bones of enslaved women from the “negro burying ground” uncovered in Manhattan. She finds women warriors everywhere. Using a “remarkable blend of passion and fact, action and reflection” (NPR), Rebecca constructs the likely pasts of Adono and Alele, women rebels who fought for freedom during the Middle Passage, as well as the stories of women who led slave revolts in Colonial New York. We also follow Rebecca’s own story as the legacy of slavery shapes her life, both during her time as a successful attorney and later as a historian seeking the past that haunts her. Illustrated beautifully in black and white, Wake will take its place alongside classics of the graphic novel genre, like Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Art Spiegelman’s Maus. This story of a personal and national legacy is a powerful reminder that while the past is gone, we still live in its wake.

The Prodigy Slave, Book Two

The Prodigy Slave, Book Two
Author: Londyn Skye
Publisher:
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2020-11
Genre:
ISBN: 9780578240404

In book two of The Prodigy Slave, the unknown injustices taking place behind the scenes are detailed during Lily's unprecedented journey to Winter Garden. The twisted web of deception slowly unravels to unveil the unsuspecting deviants responsible for the dramatic turn of events on Christmas night that leave Lily completely blindsided and desperately trying to decipher between enemies and allies. Amid trying to make sense of the confusion, two deep secrets are inadvertently revealed that bring rise to blackmail, threats of murder, revenge, and sinful betrayal. The shocking revelations leave Lily obsessively questioning her sanity, the purpose of her existence, and the validity of her unique love affair. Ultimately, Lily questions whether she will ever live out her musical dreams and sail to the Old World ruled by a queen, or live the nightmare of being imprisoned in the old world ruled by her abusive, psychopathic, white supremacist master.