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Slaveroad : An Autobiography

“Master of language” (The New York Times) John Edgar Wideman uses his unique generational position to explore what he calls the “slaveroad,” offering “a fresh perspective of slavery’s impact and a confirmation of Wideman’s exalted status in American letters” (New York magazine).

John Edgar Wideman’s Slaveroad is a groundbreaking work of “bruising candor and obsessive originality” (The Wall Street Journal). For centuries, the buying and selling of human beings was legal, and millions of Africans were kidnapped then forcibly transported across the Atlantic Ocean to serve as slaves. The enduring legacies of this slave road traffic—denied, unacknowledged, misunderstood, repressed—continue to poison the experiences and journeys of all Americans.

In a section of “Slaveroad,” called “Sheppard,” William Henry Sheppard, a descendant of enslaved Virginians, travels back to Africa where he works as a missionary, converting Africans to Christianity alongside his Southern white colleague. Wideman imagines drinking afternoon tea with Lucy Gant Sheppard, William’s wife, who was on her own slaveroad, as she experienced her husband’s adultery with the African women he was trying to convert. In “Penn Station,” Wideman’s brother, after being confined forty-four years in prison, travels from Pittsburgh to New York. As Wideman awaits his brother, he asks, “How will I distinguish my brother from the dead. Dead passengers on the slaveroad.”

“A blend of memoir, fiction, history” (The Millions), Slaveroad is a book that will inform, challenge, and surprise Wideman fans as well as newcomers to his writing.


Author:

  • John Edgar Wideman

Narrator:

  • David Sadzin

Format:

  • Audiobook

Duration:

  • 8 h 33 min

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Biographies
  • Literary biographies
  • History
  • Great occurrences and events
  • Society and Social Sciences
  • Society
  • Warfare
  • Social science

More by John Edgar Wideman

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  1. Languages of Home : Essays on Writing, Hoop, and American Lives 1971–2024

    John Edgar Wideman

    book
  2. Languages of Home : Essays on Writing, Hoop, and American Lives 1971-2024

    John Edgar Wideman

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  3. Slaveroad

    John Edgar Wideman

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  4. The Homewood Trilogy

    John Edgar Wideman

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  5. Look for Me and I'll Be Gone : Stories

    John Edgar Wideman

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  6. You Made Me Love You : Selected Stories, 1981-2018

    John Edgar Wideman

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  7. Brothers and Keepers : A Memoir

    John Edgar Wideman

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  8. Philadelphia Fire : A Novel

    John Edgar Wideman

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  9. American Histories : Stories

    John Edgar Wideman

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  10. Writing to Save a Life : The Louis Till File

    John Edgar Wideman

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  • 11 books

    John Edgar Wideman

    John Edgar Wideman’s books include, among others, Look for Me and I’ll Be Gone, You Made Me Love You, American Histories, Writing to Save a Life, Brothers and Keepers, Philadelphia Fire, Fatheralong, Hoop Roots, and Sent for You Yesterday. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice and has twice been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and National Book Award. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. He divides his time between New York and France.

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