The Sweet Revenge of Marcus Aurelius: Based on the True Story of a Slave Who Sold his Master

The Sweet Revenge of Marcus Aurelius is based on the true story of a talented and ingenious slave who sold his master. When he was still a young house boy, Marcus Aurelius was taught to read and write by the plantation owner's rebellious twelve-year-old daughter, who also instilled in him a passionate desire for freedom. She even encouraged him to escape, which he did - three different times - thus setting in motion his ultimate and sweetest revenge. His story, even without fictionalizing, is a wide-ranging, swash-buckling tale of a fittingly just revenge set against many venues: the cruelties and dehumanizing effects of plantation life, a year in a unique community of escaped slaves in the Great Dismal Swamp, Paris high society in the Second Republic, duels, an enduring love affair, bad dogs and violent slave catchers, crime-ridden New Orleans street life, and even a stint as a passenger on a pirate ship.

Hanson Mitchell is the author of a series of books collected together as The Scratch Flat Chronicles that focus on a single square mile of agricultural land in eastern Massachusetts.

He is also the author of Looking for Mr. Gilbert, the story of his discovery of the lost glass plate negatives of the first African-American landscape photographer. It was while he was researching that book that he uncovered the story of Marcus Aurelius.

He also happens to be the descendant of one of the players in this book.