The Slave Dancer, By Paula Fox

            The Slave Dancer a novel by Paula Fox, a tale which took place in the 1840s in New Orleans, Louisiana to the coasts of Africa and to the Mississippi River, the colonial years of America, when slave trade and land exploration was everyday life. The story starts out with a young boy by the name of Jessie Bollier a thirteen year old southern white boy who plays his fiddle for pennies at the dock. He lives with his mother a widow, and his sister Betty, his father died, drowned in the Mississippi River. His Family was hardworking and loving but the realities of living in poverty often made life hard for Jessie.
             One day Jessie was walking home from his unusual day of playing his fiddle for pennies at the dock, he remembers an unusual sailor who was watching him that day but he decided to not bother with it. The next day when he was walking home he was approached by the same man, a sailor he was, accompanied by another sailor. That night the men crept up on Jessie and through a sack over his head and kidnaped him.
             Jessie's fears trembled faster than a fast beating hart beat. They carried him in the sack and threw him on a tiny boat. They finally let him loose but the dark sea and black sky made the thought of an escape was impossible. Jessie asked one of the sailors where was he going and the sailor told him they are going to go on a voyage to Africa, he then asked when will he return home and he said if he is lucky he"ll be back in four months. The thought of his family being worried about him made him extremely tense. The sailors were talking amongst one each other and their names were Claudius and Purvis.
             They were sailing in the tiny boat that night for a while until Jessie spotted a ship with the words "The Moonlight" painted on the side of the ship. Jessie boarded the eerie ship and was shown to his quarters. He slept in a canopy where roaches inhabited the walls. He was forced to call it home for the next couple of months.