Myopia of Greed

Historical novel based on facts about the migration of enslaved people in the American south to the new free colony of Freetown in Sierra Leone. Maame, a teenage girl, is awakened by a screaming hoard of savages. Dragged from her home she’s chained with her neighbors; the young and elderly ruthlessly murdered before her eyes. Force marched to a slave pen; she awaits shipment in a stinking slave ship’s hold to an auction across the sea. Caleb is nearly whipped to death for merely helping a sick woman. With two friends he barely escapes through the Underground Railway, closely tracked by Tom Black, an implacable bounty hunter seeking reward for his return, dead or alive. The two meet in New England as Jake Shaw, a ship owner, and his family spirit them to safety in Nova Scotia and then on to Freetown in Sierra Leone, a free colony established by ‘The Saints’ in London. The bounty hunter, visualizing huge profits from the value of so many escapees, is relentless. Enlisting slave ship captains and even the French Navy, he intends to sack the colony and resell its citizens back to slavery. Myopia of Greed is an uplifting tale inspired by historical facts including the final battle between the largely undefended Freetown citizenry and the French Navy.