Slaves Today; A Story of Liberia is a novel written by George Schuyler, an African American. It was published in 1931. Schuyler visited Liberia and based his fictional story on his perspective of labor issues and Americo-Liberian relations with indigenous tribes during the early years of the Great Depression.[1]

The first edition of the book was published in 1931 by Brewer, Warren and Putnam in New York. A subsequent 1969 edition was published by McGrath Publishing Co. in College Park, Maryland.[2] The book was first published the same year as Schuyler's Black No More.[3]

Plot

Slaves Today, a Story of Liberia takes place exclusively on the Republic of Liberia and the Spanish island Fernando Po. It follows the protagonist, Zo, as he is forced from the comfort of his village, Takama, to various destinations where he is forced into slavery. This is usually–either directly or indirectly–at the hands of District Commissioner David Jackson[2]. The plot is a love story that ends in tragedy when faced with corrupt bureaucracy.[4]

Critical Reception

A review describes the hero of the story, Zo, as pan-African.[1] The book has been described as the first novel about Africa written by an African American.[1] The same reviewer described it as having a journalistic and anthropological style.[1]

A 1932 review by Nnamdi Azikiwe, who would become the first president of independent Nigeria, was published in the Journal of African American History and described the book as being historical fiction and stated that forced labor is a function of colonialism and imperialism.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Putnam, Aric (2006). ""Modern Slaves": The Liberian Labor Crisis and the Politics of Race and Class". Rhetoric and Public Affairs. 9 (2): 235–256. doi:10.1353/rap.2006.0052. JSTOR 41940051. S2CID 143103591.
  2. 1 2 Schuyler, George S (February 26, 1969). Slaves today; a story of Liberia. McGrath Pub. Co. OCLC 13671.
  3. ↑ Orrin Judd (February 23, 2004). "THE BLACK (AND FORGOTTEN) MENCKEN". brothersjuddblog.com. Retrieved March 1, 2019.
  4. ↑ Ferguson, Jeffrey (October 1, 2008). The Sage of Sugar Hill: George S. Schuyler and the Harlem Renaissance. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300133462 – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ Azikiwe, Ben N. (July 1, 1932). "George Schuyler, Slaves Today, A Story of Liberia". The Journal of African American History. 17 (3): 382–383. doi:10.2307/2714284. JSTOR 2714284.
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