New Novel Explores Rare Themes Related to Race, Sex, Mental Illness, Slavery
Style Magazine Newswire | 6/2/2017, 3:26 p.m.
Dr. James Laws has released his first novel, Wilmington Manor. The storyline pulls on three rarely discussed themes from the 19th Century. First and most dominant is the interracial, same sex relationship between Andrew, a young male plantation owner and Edward, his black male slave. Second is the subject of depression and mental illness among slaves which continued to exist long after they gained their freedom. Third, Wilmington Manor dispels the myth of happy obedient slaves by presenting slaves who resist their captors and fight back using everything from voodoo spells to actual fisticuffs between slave and master.
The epic novel is historical fiction with the main characters' lives being intertwined with everything from Andrew's 1856 graduation from Virginia Military Institute, the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The main characters are surrounded by several colorful secondary characters including, Andrew's social climbing mother, vindictive sister and senile father; the madam of a high-end bordello; and a slave voodoo priestess determined to heap vengeance on those who have wronged her.
Wilmington Manor is available at CreateSpace.com, Amazon.com, and on Kindle.
