Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue

What wsa it like at the slave-selling yesterday? Emma asks her father. "It was like watching people die," he replies. "I knew practically every one of them what got sold . . ." On March 3 and 4, 1859 in Savannah, Georgia, the largest slave auction in American history took place. In alternating first-person narration, this novel brings to life the people most affected by the sale, from the plantation owner and the auctioneer to the people who were sold away. Author’s note.