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 sea-faring adventure with Buddhist and Hegelian philosophy.