Cuffee, a highly-educated house slave in 1712 New York City, carries a burning resentment for his bondage toward his highly mercurial master despite repeated warnings from his "auntie" a voo-doo priestess, who tries to make him understand that he runs the danger of being sent to the dreaded island where slave owners send their "troublesome slaves" to be broken. When a new shipment of blacks arrives to be sold at auction, he meets Lilly, a beautiful and haughty woman who carries a fiery hatred for slavery, and Cuffee's desire for freedom bursts into flame as the two begin a passionate affair. When Sookie, a 12-year-old "weak-mind" child, is forced into their master's bed, becomes pregnant and dies in childbirth, Cuffee begins to recruit a small band of disgruntled slaves for a planned rebellion as his master falls under the spell of a beautiful and powerful witch who uses black magic to retain her beauty and entrap Cuffee's master. When Sookie's ghost appears in Litzie's cabin, she caves in to Cuffee's dream of freedom and initiates him into her voo-doo "coven". Fuled by Sookie's manifestations and her young child, Despair, gifted with "second sight", and Litzie's voo-doo rituals, Cuffee leads a doomed revolt in Maiden Lane that is quickly defeated after nine whites are killed and six more severely wounded. Twenty-two of the seventy blacks who had joined with Cuffee's band, twenty-on are convicted and executed by hanging, being burned at the stake, or hoisted in cages and left to perish. Based on the earliest slave revolt that took place on Maiden Lane in New York City, Randy Lee Eickhoff's deeply researched novel, written in rich, Faulknerian prose, paints a vivid account of slavery and a desire for freedom that echoes through the centuries to modern times. Readers are reminded of Toni Morrison's Beloved and William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner.
Suspense, pathos, and the macabre, all entwined with superb, fascinating, pinpoint accurate history. It's said fact is stranger than fiction, and here's the great, eminently entertaining, example. You can't put it down... " L. J. Martin, author of WEST OF THE WAR.
Randy Eickhoff has put on paper in his new novel MAIDEN LANE the story of the tragic, and incredibly sad moment in the history of the US--the slave rebellion in the early seventeen hundreds in Manhattan. It's a story that is almost unknown to modern readers, all the more tragic because of the problems between the black community and law enforcement across the country. What Randy has done is put a human face on what perhaps was the beginnings of a very real problem we're faced with now. But he has told the story in very human terms, in a way that every really good novelist does; in a way that allows their readers to be a part of the story. Bravo, Randy, well done!---David Hagberg, New York Times best-selling author of the Kirk McGarvery series, American Book Award short-listed author of THE KREMLIN CONSPIRACY
Randy Eickhoff uses the almost-forgotten 1712 Maiden's Lane slave uprising (Manhattan) to illuminate the unbelievably wretched life of slaves in the early 18th century and the harsh unforgiving nature of slave owners.
Maiden Lane is more than a story of longing for freedom and retaliation - there are threads of human passion and a sense of morality, the voodoo that slaves so believed in, and the unspoken anger that fueled this first slave revolt. Maiden Lane and the outcome set an unfortunate pattern for dealing with slaves for centuries to come.
Eickhoff's prose is rich with passion, desperation, and haunting longing. His extensive research brings this long-lost tale of brutality and retaliation alive today. Perhaps it is a cautionary tale. --Judy Alter, best-selling author of THE GILDED CAGE
Genre: Historical
Suspense, pathos, and the macabre, all entwined with superb, fascinating, pinpoint accurate history. It's said fact is stranger than fiction, and here's the great, eminently entertaining, example. You can't put it down... " L. J. Martin, author of WEST OF THE WAR.
Randy Eickhoff has put on paper in his new novel MAIDEN LANE the story of the tragic, and incredibly sad moment in the history of the US--the slave rebellion in the early seventeen hundreds in Manhattan. It's a story that is almost unknown to modern readers, all the more tragic because of the problems between the black community and law enforcement across the country. What Randy has done is put a human face on what perhaps was the beginnings of a very real problem we're faced with now. But he has told the story in very human terms, in a way that every really good novelist does; in a way that allows their readers to be a part of the story. Bravo, Randy, well done!---David Hagberg, New York Times best-selling author of the Kirk McGarvery series, American Book Award short-listed author of THE KREMLIN CONSPIRACY
Randy Eickhoff uses the almost-forgotten 1712 Maiden's Lane slave uprising (Manhattan) to illuminate the unbelievably wretched life of slaves in the early 18th century and the harsh unforgiving nature of slave owners.
Maiden Lane is more than a story of longing for freedom and retaliation - there are threads of human passion and a sense of morality, the voodoo that slaves so believed in, and the unspoken anger that fueled this first slave revolt. Maiden Lane and the outcome set an unfortunate pattern for dealing with slaves for centuries to come.
Eickhoff's prose is rich with passion, desperation, and haunting longing. His extensive research brings this long-lost tale of brutality and retaliation alive today. Perhaps it is a cautionary tale. --Judy Alter, best-selling author of THE GILDED CAGE
Genre: Historical
Used availability for Randy Lee Eickhoff's Maiden Lane