Middle Passage

Charles S. Johnson’s Middle Passage, winner of the National Book Award for fiction, was published in 1990. Set in New Orleans and on the Atlantic Ocean, the historical novel centers on the disastrous voyage of the slave ship Republic.

In 1830, Rutherford Calhoun, an ex-slave from Illinois, stows away on the Republic to avoid debts he owes to underworld boss Papa Zeringue or marriage to Isadora Bailey, who has offered to pay off those debts. Once aboard ship, Rutherford discovers that the Republic is a slave ship bound for the western coast of Africa. All is not well on the ship. The captain is Ebenezer Falcon, a physically little man who has grandiose plans for making money and spreading American power through his incursions into non-Western lands. Falcon is infamous for looting artifacts from other cultures.

Assigned to work in the kitchen, Rutherford learns that the crew of the ship, including first mate Peter Cringle and ship’s cook Josiah Squibb, believe the rickety ship and Falcon’s plans will be the death of the crew. Cringle in particular is concerned because the slaves they will be transporting in the middle passage from Africa to America are the Allmuseri, a tribe of magicians mentioned only once in the historical records and who drove the writer of that recordinsane.

After an uneventful journey to Africa, the crew brings the Allmuseri and a mysterious artifact on board. The captain discovers Rutherford rifling through the contents of his cabin. Rather than killing Rutherford, Falcon makes him his spy. The ship then sets sail back across the Atlantic.

The crew becomes rebellious and alarmed after a cabin boy sent down to feed the mystery cargo in the hold loses his mind. They realize that the Allmuseri have magical powers. Rutherford befriends one of the Allmuseri, Ngonyama, from whom he learns some of the Allmuseri language and to whom he teaches some English. Rutherford also becomes responsible for Baleka, a little Allmuseri girl, after he shares his rations with her. Ngonyama later tells Rutherford that he and anyone he cares to warn should stay below decks the next day. The crew members are also planning a mutiny, and they recruit Rutherford to disable the booby traps in Falcon’s cabin.

Unsure of what to do, Rutherford eventually informs the captain of the crew’s plot. The captain tells Rutherford that the artifact in the hold is actually the god of the Allmuseri and is worth a great deal of money, which Rutherford will gain a share in if he takes the side of the captain. Falcon’s insanity convinces Rutherford to side with the Allmuseri so long as they agree to keep Rutherford, Squibb, Pringle, and the captain alive. (The latter two are the only people who know how to helm the ship.)

When the multiple mutinies finally break out, the slaves win the day but at great cost: The food stores have mostly been spoiled by water, and many of the crew and the Allmuseri tribes people have early symptoms of yellow fever. Cringle dies of yellow fever, and the captain kills himself rather than surrender, leaving Rutherford to tell his story in the ship’s logbook. Without anyone knowledgeable at the helm, the ship is adrift. On August 20, the ship breaks apart and sinks due to lack of maintenance. The captain of the Juno, a luxury cruiser, saves the survivors of the Republic. Once on the Juno, Rutherford is shocked to discover that Isadora is aboard and is being forced to marry Papa Zeringue.

Using information about the Republic’s illegal cargo—including the fact that Papa Zeringue, a respected black man, is among the investors in the voyage—Rutherford blackmails Papa into financially supporting the Allmuseri children who survived and releasing Isadora from her promise to marry; having made these plans, Rutherford and Isadora agree to a celibate marriage that will serve to provide a family for Baleka and her peers.