National Book Award Winner
Middle Passage
by Charles R. Johnson
Summary
Rutherford Calhoun, a freshly freed and incorrigibly roguish young Black man in 1830s New Orleans, stows away on a departing ship to escape debts and a forced marriage, only to discover he has boarded an illegal slaver bound for Africa. Johnson blends sea yarn adventure with philosophical inquiry, drawing on Buddhist, Hegelian, and African intellectual traditions to interrogate identity and freedom. The novel transforms a familiar genre into a meditation on selfhood.
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Historical Context & Significance
Johnson was the first Black man to win since 1953; the novel blends seafaring adventure with Buddhist and Hegelian philosophy.