The Arcadians

“Onto the platform was led a parade of luckless humanity, who showed a wide variety of reactions to their situations. Some were tearful, some stood dejectedly with their heads hanging, a few gazed out at the audience of potential buyers with defiance, and there were others who seemed possessed of a shining confidence. Housemaids and cooks sold briskly, experienced ladies maids went for prices that astonished Klim, and the attractive young women sold as personal maids fetched upwards of five thousand dollars from their invariably male purchasers. The highest prices were for tradesmen, many of whom were sold with a female partner who was never described as a wife, because property could not marry.”

In the tiny state of Arcadia the institution of slavery is preserved and ferociously defended. Arcadians buy their branded human chattels, work them hard, and subject them to merciless flogging for trifling infractions.

Escaped slave woman Ronnie agrees to return to Arcadia as an agent for the anti-slavery resistance. Already branded, and scarred by the whip, she knows exactly what she is risking, but wants to fight for freedom's cause. After being sold to a sugar farmer her life takes an unexpected turn, and all her beliefs are challenged by events.

At the head of Arcadia's political structure is the lovely Ellen Marshall, a firm believer in the natural rightness of slavery. Ellen is locked into a dangerous dance with the resistance, and when her former rival Fox Klim plots against her a bloody climax becomes inevitable.