Web Of Freedom — Kelvin Christopher James

Set in the early 19th century and reminiscent of the grand storytelling of Alexandre Dumas, Web of Freedom recounts the adventures of prince M'nalo Fanta Bembo, who escapes from a slave ship that has transported him from his native Africa. Living alone on a remote Caribbean island and surviving on his wits and knowledge of sorcery and botany, he is discovered by native forest people and treated as an honored Savage. Yet following his destiny, he strikes out on his own path and is eventually rescued from a hurricane by buccaneers. The pirate ship's captain, addicted to opium, is yet a man of high principles, and for M'nalo's safety, leaves him on his brother's sugar plantation, where the lives and loves of the slavers and the enslaved play out in vivid detail. There, living as a free black man among black slaves, M'nalo is respected, makes friends, and inspires followers. Then with unforeseen consequences, he falls in love. "Joy is a mighty muscle!" is the novel's exuberant opening line as M'nalo rows toward freedom and a fate he could never have contemplated.