of enslavement. The author’s foreword reveals the
intensity of Schuyler’s hopes for the novel and for
its impact on many nations. He writes plainly that
“[i]f this novel can help arouse enlightened world
opinion against this brutalizing of the native popu-
lation in a Negro republic, perhaps the conscience
of civilized people will stop similar atrocities in na-
tive lands ruled by proud white nations that boast
of their superior culture.”
Slaves Todayfocuses on the oppressive labor
practices in Liberia and the exploitation of native
peoples. In his foreword, Schuyler notes that
“[r]egardless of the polite name that masks it
while bloody profits are ground out for white and
black masters,” modern slavery “differs only in
slight degree from slavery in the classic sense, ex-
cept that the chattel slaves’s lives were not held so
cheaply.” Schuyler’s literary exposé contributes to
the larger pan-African interest in African social,
economic, and political matters. His story, how-
ever, focuses on the ways in which Africans ex-
ploited their kinsmen, rather than on the evils of
white colonialism.
Schuyler critic Michael Peplow, who proposes
that Slaves Todayis the first novel about AFRICA
by an African American, notes that the novel was
markedly controversial. The most tragic aspect of
Schuyler’s fictional narrative revolves around Zo
and Pameta, a newlywed and native African cou-
ple. Before the wedding festivities are completed,
the couple is brutally separated by slave raiders.
Zo is sold into bondage and transported out of the
country. His wife, Pameta, becomes a slave in a
harem. After grueling experiences that include
sickness, efforts to escape, and betrayal, the cou-
ple is reunited. Pameta dies in her husband’s arms.
Enraged by her death, Zo plots to murder the
commissioner who instigated the initial raid on
the wedding ceremony. He succeeds in killing
Commissioner Jackson but loses his life immedi-
ately when a guard shoots him in the commis-
sioner’s compound.
Slaves Today also illuminates the political
machinations that both facilitate and maintain
slavery. Schuyler develops thinly veiled portraits of
contemporary officials and political leaders. The
persistent corruption and the failure of reform and
resistance efforts mean ultimately that slavery is
not abolished.
Bibliography
Peplow, Michael. George Schuyler.Boston: Twayne Pub-
lishers, 1980.
Schuyler, George. Slaves Today: A Story of Liberia.1931;
reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1969.“Sleeper Wakes, The”Jessie Fauset(1920)
A moving short story about emerging racial con-
sciousness by JESSIEFAUSETthat appeared in three
installments in THECRISIS.One of several stories
that appeared in the monthly magazine of the NA-
TIONALASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT
OFCOLOREDPEOPLE, “The Sleeper Wakes” ap-
peared in the August, September, and October
1920 issues.
The protagonist is Amy, a light-skinned,
mixed-race woman who, after living with a white
family, becomes the charge of an African-American
family named the Boldins. Amy has no information
about her background, only the memory of a “tall,
proud white woman” who drives her to the
Boldins’ home in Trenton, New Jersey. When she is
17, Amy resolves to run away in order to express
herself fully and to enjoy the world. She makes her
way to NEWYORKCITYand there takes up with a
lively artist named Zora Harrison. Living as a white
woman in New York, Amy has the opportunity to
marry an older, rich white man. She does so, even
though she does not love him. Her life is good, but
Stuart James Wynne is a southerner with no incli-
nation to be civil to his African-American domes-
tic staff. After witnessing a series of confrontations
with the help, Amy intervenes when a young male
servant whom she likes threatens revenge on
Wynne. As she tries to justify her intervention, she
reveals to her husband that she is a colored
woman. Predictably, Wynne divorces her, and she
begins life anew. When, after some time, he finds
her and offers to take her back, she is stunned to
realize that he does not want her as a wife but as a
mistress. She refuses and, at that point, realizes
that she wants desperately to reconnect with the
Boldins, the family who loved her unconditionally.
The story closes as she prepares to reunite with the
family who has missed her and looks forward to her
return.
Fauset’s story foreshadows the themes of racial
consciousness, female desire, and social responsi-482 “Sleeper Wakes, The”