James Stout

Right.

He works as a blacksmith assistant.

He spends the next month gaining their trust.

And his plan is I want to escape.

Right.

It's like I'm going to get their trust so I can make an escape attempt.

This doesn't pan out, though, and he's ultimately bought and sold several times.

He learns three languages as he journeys across Africa and he ends up in a coastal village where he is sold onto a slave ship.

Now, up to this point, he always emphasizes, and it's kind of a weird part of the book, but he's really emphatic.

I was always treated well.

People were not mean.

I mean, what they're doing, separated from his sister, but they're not cruel.

They're not yelling at him.

They're not treating him as a subhuman, right?

They're just doing this awful thing to him.

And as an 11-year-old, it's really weird for him because they're being so nice while they do this awful thing.

Like, it's kind of a head fuck, right?

And yeah, he generally enjoys good food and is, you know, kept relatively healthy this whole time.

And this ends as soon as he's sold onto a slaving vessel.

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