Why do Frances and Josiah allow Sir Charles Fairley's to rape one of the female slaves? What do they have to lose by refusing his request? What do they have to gain by looking the other way while he commits his sexual assault?ĥ. I wouldn't know how to teach niggers.' Based on the statements made by slaves, their owners, and abolitionists, describe the range of racial views held by the inhabitants of 18th-century Bristol.Ĥ.

Before Frances meets the slaves she is to instruct in English, she says: 'I have taught children, but they were human children. It is the only thing we know.' How do Sarah Cole's attitudes about the trade and the risk involved in her family's shipping business compare with those of her brother, Josiah? To what extent do Sarah's views prevent her from welcoming her sister-in-law, Frances, into the family?ģ. What is Mehuru's role in his African tribe? To what extent do his gift of prophecy and his linguistic abilities enable him to endure the hardships of the middle passage and his enslavement in England?Ģ. From the opposite ends of the earth, despite the enmity of slavery, Mehuru and Frances confront each other and their needs for love and liberty.ġ. Into her new world comes Mehuru, once a priest in the ancient African kingdom of Yoruba. Trading her social contacts for Josiah's protection, Frances enters the world of Bristol merchants and finds her life and fortune depend on the respectable trade of sugar, rum, and slaves. But he needs ready cash and a well-connected wife.Īn arranged marriage to Frances Scott is a mutually convenient solution.

Josiah Cole, a small dockside trader, is prepared to gamble everything to join the big players of the city.

Bristol in 1787 is booming, from its shipping docks to its elegant new houses. The devastating consequences of the slave trade in 18th-century Bristol, England, are explored through the powerful but FORBIDDEN attraction of well-born Frances Scott and her Yoruban slave, Mehuru.

A respectable trade book