Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer

"The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for fresh air: but now the whole ship’s cargo was confined together: it became absolutely pestilential;.” (Euqaino 2). In the book The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox, a thirteen-year-old boy, Jessie is captured and taken on a slave ship. While embarking on the long voyage, he realizes how similar is lifestyle is to the slave’s. Similar to them, he is punished, eats loathsome food, and is confined to the compacted ship. Aboard the Moonlight Jessie witnesses horrifying behavior towards the helpless slaves. Throughout the story, his perspective shifts determining how he feels towards slavery. This striking novel clearly expresses the hostile environment slaves endured. Paula Fox establishes a tense mood of the bitter reality of the slave trade over this period of time. Jessie obtains knowledge from a desolate world far from his familiar hometown in New Orleans. This knowledge is only discovered when he gains freedom from home, Jessie only occupied a imprisonment on a slave ship.
However some may believe that the book The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox is a fictional story that doesn’t provide any historical accuracy, and shows stereotypical emotions towards slaves, this novel does properly establish historical facts like the conditions of slaves, the portrayal of sailors, and mistreatment towards