Seeds of Slavery

Two businessmen seduced by the opportunities of the Gold Coast. Two lovers twice denied happiness by another man's greed. Two young men of mixed African and European heritage exploited by unscrupulous leaders from both worlds. One boy who makes his own destiny.In 1667 Samuel Hastings and his business partner, Albert Dross, set sail for Africa to earn their fortunes in trans-Atlantic slave trafficking. This decision will change the lives of hundreds, inciting kings to war and tearing families apart to support a trade that will spread untold wealth--and shame--across three continents and two centuries.Mussah and Hawa, young lovers forced apart by a father's debts, are arrested for adultery and then reunited on a slave ship bound for the New World. They fear the worst--being separated--but nothing can prepare them for the trials they encounter on the ship and where the Middle Passage takes them.Kofi and Kwesi are mixed-race middlemen who see no harm, and plenty of profit, in playing politics with a pair of kings, until that leads to murder and torture. As much pawns in the game as the captive slaves, they are forced into committing crimes against their own people. Each man must choose between wealth and power in the cutthroat world he helped create or a simple life in which he can find peace and self-respect.Akoto is a boy who reacts without thinking about the consequences, always leaping into trouble to try to help the ones he loves. Can he save himself when the time comes to risk everything?Set during the early years of the slave trade in West Africa, Seeds of Slavery uncovers painful truths about the tribal leaders and European traders who created a global exchange of human lives for gold and guns that would dislocate families, weaken identities, and impart a legacy of loss and pain for generations to come.