Common Sense Media Review
Kidnapped White boy sees cruelty of slavery in graphic tale.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
THE SLAVE DANCER begins in 1840 New Orleans, where a young boy named Jessie is kidnapped and forced aboard a "slave ship" bound for Africa. He is forced both to act as a ship's boy and to play his fife while the enslaved Africans are "danced" -- meaning, they're forced to exercise in order to maintain muscle tone during the voyage. Jessie tries to refuse but he's flogged for being disobedient. On the ship, he meets the vicious, greedy, hard-drinking captain and the sullen and contentious crew. But the rigors of the trip west across the Atlantic, including the brutal and unjust flogging of one of the sailors, do not prepare Jessie for the horrors of the return trip. The enslaved are packed into the hold on top of each other; they are brutalized and malnourished, and the dead are thrown overboard. Jessie is eventually able to help one of the captives to safety, but he will never forget what he saw on that ship.
Is It Any Good?
By telling this story from Jessie's point of view, author Paula Fox helps young readers share his journey and his horror, as the brutality of the slave trade is revealed to him. It's an emotional point of entry to a grotesque world. This is an enormously effective approach, especially when Jessie is made to "dance" the captives. This is a disturbingly (and realistically) violent story, in which inhumane treatment of the captive Africans segues into murder when they are hurled from the ship into shark-infested open water. Younger readers, particularly those who are sensitive to injustice, should read this book in a classroom setting or along with parents who can help their children understand the material and express their feelings about it.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the author's choice to make the narrator of The Slave Dancer a young White boy. How would the story be different if one of the enslaved African people told it?
How did it make you feel when Jessie is forced to perform for the Black captives?
What did you know about slavery in the U.S. before you read this novel? What more did you learn?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Historical Fiction
- Topics : History
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Aladdi
- Publication date : March 28, 2004
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 9 - 12
- Number of pages : 176
- Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Award : Newbery Medal and Honors
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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