The Slave Ship

After Culloden, young David Scott escapes the Edinburgh Tolbooth only to find himself hunted through a storm-dark night into a refuge that cannot last. Hidden in a barn, sustained by a Bible, and haunted by thoughts of Mysie Johnston, he is caught between vengeance and faith before soldiers set the shelter ablaze and send him back to prison, then into exile aboard the brig King William for Virginia. There he meets Gervase Morrison, a ruined but brilliant companion whose bleak philosophy recasts the voyage as a system of masters and the mastered. Seven rough weeks later, the ship reaches Chesapeake Bay and Jamestown, where condemned Scots and indentured laborers are sold off under the eye of Mr. Ransom. Colonel Amory purchases David and others, drawing them into the polished cruelty of plantation life at Amory Hall, where beauty, status, and "kindness" conceal exhausting labor and racial domination. The story widens further aboard the slave ship Janet, tracing the Middle Passage in all its brutality, while David confronts the suffering, resilience, and moral corruption that bind captives, sailors, and profiteers alike. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.