Product Description
by Horace Alexander (Author)
In the mid-seventeenth century, John Bolt, a dark-skinned Jamaican freedman is implicated in the death of a prominent European on the island. Bolt flees to the hills where he survives and returns to Port Royal as Kwaku, an itinerant small farmer peddling his ground provisions from door to door, including the residence of English clergyman Emanuel Heath. Kwaku cultivates a relationship with Poinci, Heath's foster daughter who is later transferred to the Stokes Hall sugar estate as a house servant. Some slaves on the estate use a hurricane as an opportunity to escape and join the freedom fighter Maroons in the hills and help prepare for the Maroons' war with the English army. Kwaku is a spy for the Maroons but is unmasked as Bolt by a Maroon traitor and stands trial for the murder of the European. Bolt is exonerated through the testimony of Mary Carleton, Port Royal's most notorious prostitute. The Maroons defeat the English army and soon thereafter Lord Stokes returns from England to his Jamaican estate and Port Royal where he indulges in the debauchery that characterizes that pirate city. Port Royal is then wracked by a massive earthquake that sinks two thirds of the city below the waves of the Caribbean Sea. Heath, Poinci, and Bolt survive the earthquake and look forward to new beginnings.
Although a historical novel, it raises currently important questions regarding class, race, ecology, and theodicy.
Author Biography
Horace Alexander was born in Kingston and grew up in Christiana, Jamaica. He holds a doctorate (Ed.D.) in Leadership and Administration and has been a school principal, district superintendent, college dean and college vicepresident. More recently he has been an English professor at San Bernardino Valley College in San Bernardino, California. He resides with his wife Dalila in Loma Linda, California. Dr. Alexander enjoys acoustic guitar, an exotic pen collection, and car restorations. In October 2010 he was inducted as a Lifetime Member of the Rolls Royce Foundation and currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Jamaica Cultural Alliance in Los Angeles. Moon Over Port Royal is his first novel.
