Review for Triangle: A Memoir of Black
Caesar by B. James Wilson
Triangle: A Memoir of Black Caesar is
the story of a young black man named Nwoye and his rise to become the
man known as Black Caesar. Taken captive from West Africa as a child,
he navigates his new reality as a slave. His story is intertwined
with that of young British Colin Aldworth, the son of a wealthy
merchant rising to new heights with the slave trade. He sets his son
on one of these slave trading ships to learn the family business, and
this sets him on a complex and difficult journey, hand in hand with
Black Caesar. We get to see what the world looked like during the
apex of the slave trade and see its deep connections with piracy, and
Wilson does not hold back in making sure the realities of that time
in the world are front and center.
Though I do not have a huge amount of
knowledge in the history of slavery I do think the book did a great
job in describing the social and economical impacts of the practice.
I also have to give Wilson a shout of for his great portrayal of the
realities of piracy; one minute you have dispensation from your ruler
that you can pillage enemy ships, another minute that enemy is now
your friend and you are a criminal, aka pirate. The fluidity of
political situations between European powers meant that legitimate
merchants or privateers would find themselves suddenly pirates at a
moments notice, simply because two powers decided to end a war
between themselves. As an extra layer the wealth that became
associated with the slave trade fueled most of these hostilities.
Its essentially chaos and I think he captured the absurdity of it all
fairly well.
However the meat and potatoes of this
book is slavery, specifically the fictional story of the potentially
real person who was Black Caesar, famed African pirate operating in
the Florida Keys in the late 1600's. The Black Caesar of Wilson's
imagining is very similar to the supposedly real one; a large
imposing man, intent on staying free and creating his own fortunes,
but there was more than a splash of a white savior complex when it
came to Colin's character. Despite this however I do think Wilson did
an excellent job with Black Caesar as a character, fully developing
his character and fully realizing the world and context he lived in.
The character of Colin too was a delight, and the relationship he had
with Black Caesar equal parts heart warming and frustrating; perfect
for this book and the mood Wilson sets.
With action, drama and romance,
Triangle was a fantastic read from start to finish, and I can't wait
to dig into B. James Wilson's other books.
To learn more about B. James Wilson go
here.
To purchase 'Triangle: A Memoir of
Black Caesar', go here.
