Her mother, Kitty, is a slave on Amity, a sugarcane plantation, while her father is the Scottish overseer of the plantation - July says she is a Mulato not a negro.Ĭaroline Mortimer and her brother own the plantation and when Caroline sees July as a little girl, she is captivated and takes her from her weeping mother without a second thought. July, a young slave girl, is the protagonist of The Long Song is nuanced, and does not take recourse to easy generalisations or broad stereotypes. Yes, slavery is horrific and human beings are capable of incredible cruelty towards their fellows, but what of crimes committed for the right reasons, for ‘their own good’? What of people who are essentially good, who set off wanting to do good but falter on the way or are defeated by circumstances? The Long Song proves there are no easy answers, characterisations or conclusions. The Long Song is set in colonial Jamaica, focusing on the events before and after the abolition of slavery in 1833. Based on Andrea Levy’s eponymous novel, which was the finalist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize,
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