Feeding the Ghosts - Softcover

Fred D'Aguiar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1478631945 ISBN 13: 9781478631941

Publisher: Waveland Press, Inc., 2015

Synopsis

A literary venture into the economic shadow that slavery cast, Feeding the Ghosts, based on a true story, lays bare the raw business of the slave trade. The Zong, a slave ship packed with captive African "stock," is headed to the New World. When illness threatens to disable all on board and cut potential profits, the ship's captain orders his crew to throw the sick into the ocean. After being hurled overboard, Mintah, a young female slave taken from a Danish mission, is able to climb back onto the ship. From her hiding place, she rouses the remaining slaves to rebel and stirs unease among the crew with a voice and conscience they seem unable to silence. Mintah's courage and others' reactions to it unfold in a suspenseful story of the struggle to live even when threatened by oblivion.

About this title

From the Author:

The Zong was a real slave ship where slaves were tossed overboard due to disease in 1781. D'Aguiar says, "I came across an exhibit of a slave ship at The Maritime Museum in Liverpool.... A document at the gallery mentioned the Zong... one of the slaves who was thrown overboard managed to climb back on board. This contradicts the captain's claims that the slaves he threw away were too sick to survive the crossing." This incident, which provided inspiration for Feeding the Ghosts, also inspired a painting by J.M.W. Turner called "The Slave Ship."

About the Author:

D'Aguiar is the author of The Longest Memory and winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award.

About this edition

• Publisher: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1478631945
• ISBN 13: 9781478631941
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 230