The Slave Ship

He escaped a life in chains. The ship that saves him carries others into slavery.
Scotland, 1746. In the aftermath of Culloden, young Jacobite David Scott is transported to Virginia and sold into servitude. After years under another man’s power, he makes a desperate escape—and finds refuge aboard the Janet.
Under Captain William Bartram, David discovers companionship, opportunity, and the promise of a future. But the Janet is bound for the African coast, and her profits depend on the buying and selling of human beings.
David knows the bitterness of captivity. He also knows how easily a man can learn to justify the suffering that pays his wages.
As dangerous crossings, rebellion, and disease test life aboard the ship, his loyalty to Bartram deepens—and so does his part in the trade. To question it means questioning everything he has come to call his own.
From Scotland and colonial Virginia to West Africa and Jamaica, Mary Johnston’s The Slave Ship follows a fugitive drawn into the very system he once fought to escape. A compelling historical novel for readers of maritime drama, morally complex characters, and stories in which the hardest reckoning is with yourself.