Masters and Savages: A Novel

A saint who despises slavery yet traffics people. A Southern hero, but also a coward. A runaway aching for home. Civil War survivor Witfield Stone totters on the brink of insanity. Entrusted with transporting contract laborers from Africa to Brazil where his father and members of the Southern Land and Immigration Society plan to reconstruct their lost fortunes, Witfield takes special interest in the fate of eleven-year-old Fatima. On the eve of embarkation, disease breaks out, and there is pressure to sacrifice the child for the sake of the cargo. Witfield resists and even as the clipper ship sails and disease takes hold of all on board, Witfield protects her. But why does he stake the last vestiges of his crumbling humanity on saving this particular child among so many? What leads him to think she is the road to redemption? There is more to Witfield’s past than first meets the eye. And there is more trouble ahead than he can imagine.