The Slave Dancer

The Slave Dancer is about slave practices that occurred in the South. The major characters in this story are Jessie Bollier, Clay Purvis, and Benjamin Stout.

Jessie Boiller is thirteen years old. He makes a few pennies each day by playing his fife in the rough districts of New Orleans during the 1840's. Jessie's family is very poor, they own practically nothing. They live in a damp room on Pirate's Alley, which is where his mother works as a seamstress for wealthy women of New Orleans. Jessie is protected from the awfulness of slavery because his family is too poor to own slaves and his mother would not allow him to hang around the slave market. Jessie dreams of being rich one day.

Clay Purvis is an Irishman and he is one of the sailors who kidnapped Jessie. Purvis is an uneducated, rough big man but he has a soft spot for Jessie. He is responsible for sewing the sails on the ship when they get torn.

Benjamin Stout is a quiet and polite sailor. He was forced to be a sailor but eventually he becomes to enjoy being a sailor. He is bored when he is on land. Ben gets Jessie clothes and food and he instructs Jessie as to what chores to do. Ben is the only crewmember who notices Jessie.

Other characters are Captain Cawthorne, the Master of the ship; The Moonlight. Captain Cawthorne would have the slaves dance on the ship in order to keep their muscles strong. Nicholas Sparks is the Mate and 98 slaves. The slave's true names were only remembered by their family members.

It is 1840 in the French Quarter of New Orleans however in The Slave Dancer there are a few different places in which the story takes place. They start in New Orleans, and then it moves to West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico. The story moves by way of a slave ship The Moonlight. While walking home one evening, through the French Quarter of New Orleans, thirteen year old Jessie Bollier is kidnapped by two crew members of the slave ship The Moonlight. Jessie is wrapped into a canvas cloth and made to walk across the bayou. The whole time he is walking across the bayou Jessie is afraid that he will be attacked by a cottonmouth snake. The men who take Jessie force him onto the ship because they want him to play his fife for their captain, Captain Cawthorne. Jessie thinks that he was taken to entertain the crew members of the ship, but Jessie learns that he is to play the fife to "dance the slaves." The slaves are illegally moved from Africa to Cuba, on the ship The Moonlight.