un libro che (non) fa male - franz
New Orleans, 1840. Jessie Bollier, un ragazzino poverissimo, viene rapito e costretto a far parte dell'equipaggio di una nave che trasporta schiavi africani. Toccherà a Jessie accompagnare con il suo piffero la "danza" quotidiana di uomini, donne e bambini che ogni giorno il capitano costringe a esercitarsi sul ponte... Poi un naufragio interrompe il terribile viaggio, e per Jessie e Ras, giovane schiavo, comincia un'avventura piena di pericoli ma anche di incontri con uomini generosi e pronti a tutto pur di aiutarli, finché Jessie diventerà un convinto abolizionista, nemico di tutto ciò che opprime, degrada e offende gli altri esseri umani.
Jessie Bollier often played his fife to earn a few pennies down by the New Orleans docks. One afternoon a sailor asked him to pipe a tune, and that evening Jessie was kidnapped and dumped aboard The Moonlight, a slave ship, where a hateful duty awaited him. He was to play music so the slaves could "dance" to keep their muscles strong, their bodies profitable. Jessie was sickened by the thought of taking part in the business of trading rum and tobacco for blacks and then selling the ones who survived the frightful sea voyage from Africa. But to the men of the ship a "slave dancer" was necessary to ensure their share of the profit. They did not heed the horrors that every day grew more vivid, more inescapable to Jessie. Yet , even after four months of fear, calculated torture, and hazardous sailing with a degraded crew, Jessie was to face a final horror that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
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