Revisit Slavery Stories, William Melvyn Kelley & Esi Edugyan
Repeated as America is marking 400 years since a ship arrived in Virginia carrying slaves, this episode hears about academic research which is reshaping our knowledge.
New research on slavery with historians Christienna Fryar, Kevin Waite, and Andrea Livesey. A Different Drummer was the debut novel of Kelley - first published when he was 24. Compared to William Faulkner and James Baldwin, it was forgotten until an article about it led to republication. Kelley died aged 79 in 2017. His story imagines the day the black population of a Southern US town decide to get up and all go. Canadian writer Esi Edugyan has imagined a black slave becoming a scientist in her novel Washington Black. Laurence Scott presents.
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Arts & Ideas
Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives.