The Known World (Hardcover)
Henry Townsend,a black farmer,bootmaker,and former slave,has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor -- William Robbins,perhaps the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage,Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation -- as well as of his own slaves. When he dies,his widow,Caldonia,succumbs to profound grief,and things begin to fall apart at their plantation: slaves take to escaping under the cover of night,and families who ha