African American Historical Fiction

The book tells the story of Henry, a slave who escapes from his plantation and meets the notorious pirate Blackbeard. Together, they embark on a journey filled with danger and adventure, facing challenges such as wanted posters, royal navy battles, and the threat of losing Blackbeard's treasure.

The World is Full of Champions spans more than thirty years from the ’60s to the late ’90s in race-torn Philadelphia as two proud Black families—one wealthy, the other not—confront major change when tragedy strikes and the daughter of the working-class Smythe family falls in love with the son of the affluent Whitman family.

Let the people of West Mills say what they will about Azalea 'Knot' Centre; they won't keep her from what she loves best: cheap moonshine, 19th-century literature, and the company of men. And yet, when motherhood looms, Knot begins to learn that her freedom has come at a high price. Low on money, ostracized from her parents and cut off from her hometown, Knot turns to her neighbor, Otis Lee Loving, in search of some semblance of family and home.

Harlem, 1936. Clyde “The Viper” Morton boards a train from Alabama to Harlem to chase his dreams of being a jazz musician. When his talent fails him, he becomes caught up in the dangerous underbelly of Harlem’s drug trade, leaving him to decide what he's willing to give up and what he wants to fight for.

Three Brothers from Virginia tells the tale of Matt and his two enslaved brothers, Paul and Luke, who thrive upon their insulated Virginia farm until the Civil War forces them to stare into the face of a reality they so long eluded. As Paul flees to New York, Matt joins the Confederate army, and Luke remains a slave, the brothers are thrown into sweeping battles, riots, and a cloud of enmity, their values and lives tested by a festering intolerance that threatens the only truth they ever knew.

Read about a genius slave who name George; also known in the 1800’s as, The Black Magician, for his remarkable tactics of helping slaves escape North into freedom. George uses his witty inventions, brilliant disguises and crafty tricks to help slaves escape slavery. George is instructed and guided by his grandmother, a Nubian princess, stolen from Africa. While setting out on the mission to set slaves free, George has to contend with a money hungry slave catcher, dishonest friends and many other trials and tribulations.

Valiant Jackson always gets what he wants - and he's wanted Mae for years. The door finally opens for him when Mae strikes a bargain: seduce her virginal young cousin, Cecily, who is engaged to Frank Washington. Frank values her innocence above all else. If successful, Val's reward will be a night with Mae. But Val secretly seeks another prize. Elizabeth Townsend is fiercely loyal to her church and her civil rights attorney husband. Little does she know that her worst mistake will be Val's greatest triumph.

Jimmi Ellen Jenkins fell in love with Marvin Gaye the day they met. Shortly thereafter, Jimmi also became Motown founder Berry Gordy's greatest asset; saving the famed musical family from the consequences of its many sins and indiscretions for over 20 years. Now, after a lifetime of her husband's betrayals, Jimmi will call upon the amazing Teddy Pendergrass as well as the secrets in her own notorious notebook to save herself and begin to heal her wounded heart.

A sus veintiséis años, Jean Louise Finch —«Scout»— vuelve a casa desde la ciudad de Nueva York para visitar su anciano padre, Atticus. En el contexto de las tensiones por los derechos civiles y de los disturbios políticos que estaban transformando el Sur, el regreso de Jean Louise a casa se torna agridulce cuando descubre verdades perturbadoras acerca de su querida y unida familia, de la ciudad y de las personas que más quiere. Los recuerdos de infancia la invaden y ve cuestionados sus valores y fundamentos.

This is a time when the industrial might of the US was converted from making automobiles and washing machines to airplanes and bombs; a time when men carried guns instead of lunch pails; a time when machines stood idle because there was no white men to operate them; a time when white women left home to take the place of white men in the factories. This is a time when most unions and companies continued to ban Negroes from skill-training or employment in all but janitorial jobs; a time when white men refused to have black men work alongside them....

Laurel Dixon has it all. She is a Caucasian woman, living the American Dream... or so she thinks. She has a successful career in a world where women are expected to be home and stay silent. She is a proponent for equal rights, and has finally given birth to her first child after years of failed pregnancies.

Francis Barber, a Jamaican forced into slavery as a child, becomes the manservant and friend of literary legend Dr. Samuel Johnson. Randy Turpin beats Sugar Ray Robinson in 1951 to become, for a short time, middleweight champion of the world. David Oluwale, stowed away on a ship bound for England from West Africa, has dreams of becoming an engineer. Each man soon falls from grace, becoming just another face with the wrong color skin.

Award-winning journalist Elyse Singleton delivers what Essence calls “a gem - the perfect book to curl up with.”

Best friends Lilian and Myraleen, two African American women from rural Mississippi, travel to Europe during World War II to act as members of the Women’s Army Corps. During this time of segregation and destruction, both women discover love and heartbreak, triumph and defeat.

Sparked by an indigo sun, Nat Turner stormed into history with a sword in one hand and a Bible in the other. Thirty years before the advent of the Civil War - in the predawn hours of August 22, 1831, commanding a small army of slaves, Nat Turner led a bloody fight for freedom that shined a national spotlight on slavery and left more than fifty whites dead.

Inspired by the extraordinary events of Dr. May Chinn’s life, Angel of Harlem is a deeply affecting story of love and transcendence. Weaving seamlessly scenes from the battlefields of the Civil War, during which her father escaped from slavery, to the Harlem living rooms and kitchen tables where May is sometimes forced to operate on her patients, this fascinating novel lays bare the heart of a woman who changed the face of medicine.

Fourteen-year-old Audrey Martin, with her Poindexter glasses and her head humming the 3/4 meter of gospel music, knows she'll never get out of Kentucky - but when her fingers touch the piano keys, the whole church trembles. Her best friend, Caroline, daydreams about Hollywood stardom, but both girls feel destined to languish in a slow-moving stopover town in Montgomery County. That is, until chance intervenes and a booking agent offers Audrey a ticket to join the booming jazz scene in Harlem.

Fourteen years after the end of slavery, Lord Henry Hardin and his wife, Lady Bertha, enjoy an entitled life in Union County, Arkansas. Until he faces a devastating reality: Bertha is unable to bear children. If Henry doesn't produce an heir, the American branch of his family name will die out. So Henry, desperate to preserve his aristocratic family lineage, does the unthinkable.

Jackie is a poor boy from Harlem and the victim of abuse from his widowed, alcoholic father. But everything changes on the day he discovers the power of comedy. When his classmates make fun of his tattered clothes, Jackie turns everything around by freely poking fun at himself and soon has everyone on the floor with laughter. His amazing talent, and raging ambition, take him through the local club circuit to become the most sought after comedic entertainer in opulent, '50s Las Vegas and beyond.

Cow Tom, born into slavery in Alabama in 1810 and sold to a Creek Indian chief before his 10th birthday, possessed an extraordinary gift: the ability to master languages. As the new country developed westward, and Indians, settlers, and blacks came into constant contact, Cow Tom became a key translator for his Creek master and was hired out to US military generals.

The son of Maya Angelou, Guy Johnson is a critically acclaimed author and poet in his own right. Echoes of a Distant Summer is the story of Jackson St. Clair Tremain, a San Francisco civil servant who thought he had left his old life far behind. In 1982, Jackson is summoned to Mexico to confer with his dying grandfather, the brutal hustler King Tremain. When King dies, Jackson inherits $50 million - and the unwanted attentions of a malevolent bayou crime lord named Pug DuMont.