Slavery – a black chapter in human history. Find out what it meant for those involved, even after its abolishment, from 10 gems of our catalog.

Clotel, the President’s Daughter, lived a quite comfortable life – until the death of her father. Still legally a slave, she and her mother and sister end up at a slave auction. What happened to the three of them is described in the novel by William Wells Brown – based on the life of the alleged children of Thomas Jefferson.

Joel Chandler Harris was an American folklorist who collected the stories of plantation slaves. The Tar Baby and Other Rhymes of Uncle Remus is a collection of 26 stories put in verse. It’s certainly not politically correct these days, but an important testimony of times that should not be forgotten.

Plenty of whites were not happy with the abolishment and tried their best to undermine it. Charles W. Chesnutt writes about the rise of the white supremacist movement – and how they tried to take political control over the town of Wellington – in his novel The Marrow of Tradition.

Not only in America, but also in the Caribbean, slaves demanded their freedom. Toussaint L’Ouverture was a main part of it: Born in slavery, he led the uprising and saw the foundation of the Independent State of Haiti. Eventually, he became govenor of the island, but was imprisoned by the French and died in France. Read his fascinating biography by John Relly Beard.

Henry Ossian Flipper was also a slave who rose to fame. Although not the only one, he was the first Colored Cadet at West Point who eventually graduated – as 2nd lieutenant in 1877. Read about his experiences at the most famous of all military schools in the US in his autobiography.

Another first – the first black woman political writer – was Maria W. Stewart. Her book Meditions from the Pen is a collection of various of her works. Part memoir, it also contains four of her speeches on women and slavery, as well as her meditations and prayers.

Two women are at the center of Nella Larsen’s novel. Though of mixed race, both are Passing as white, but their lives are as different as they can be: Irene marries a black man and Clare a white one. Their meeting years later leads to painful consequences.

Painful consequences is exactly what Iago has in mind when he seeks to destroy the loving marriage of Othello and Desdemona. An expert in sowing distrust – will he succeed in our production of Shakespeare’s drama?

A butler who is not trusted, has no place in a household. This is what Barry Hamilton has to find out after a large sum of money disappears. So, he takes his family to New York to find new employment. But things go from bad to worse in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s novel The Sport of the Gods.

New York is also the scene of our last book by Irvin S. Cobb. J. Poindexter, Colored, is the personal assistant of Judge Priest, who is currently on holidays abroad. So, Jefferson has time to roam the city – and has plenty of (humorous) adventures…

Enjoy – but don’t forget!

Happy New Year! And happy it is indeed, as we have just survived the latest apocalypse of 21. December 2012… However, it’s never too early to prepare for the next one – with 10 gems from our catalog.

The major problem of people predicting the End of the World is that hardly anyone believes them. This happens in H. Beam Piper’s novel The Edge of the Knife: A man sees a nuclear war, the rise of the Terran Federation and, finally, the start of space travel.

If you do meet alien peoples – not necessarily from outer space – being able to communicate is essential. Wouldn’t a language designed for easy learning be perfect for the purpose? Take a class with Helen Fryer, The Esperanto Teacher.

Although uninhabited, comets certainly come from outer space, and the one in Camille Flammarion’s novel is going to hit. Read Omega: The Last Days of the World and see how the world is coping with imminent destruction.

The most popular strategy in such cases is to run and hide. This is what the protagonists in the Decameron do, they flee from a plague to the countryside. To escape boredom they tell each other stories in Giovanni Boccaccio’s masterpiece, which we have staged as dramatic reading.

When a plague strikes, you’ll have a lot of sick people to care for. For a manual on how to do this lovingly and efficiently, read Notes on Nursing by Florence Nightingale, regarded as the founder of modern nursing.

But what if all treatment fails? In the novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Lionel Varney is the only one immune to a violent illness that slowly but surely kills all mankind except him. Find out how he deals with being The Last Man.

At least Adam is not completely alone after natural desaster strikes – luckily he has Robin. How the two strive to learn everything they need to survive is described in The Master Knot of Human Fate by Ellis Meredith.

Food is the primary ingredient to successful survival – but what if the ingredients are scarce? Dr. Albert P. Sy, a professor of chemistry, wrote the WWI pamphlet Food Preparedness about how to get maximum nutrition out of minimum supply.

Avis Everhard witnesses the rise of an oligarchic tyrannny in the US. 700 years later, her diary is published with correcting commentary by Anthony Meredith. Read The Iron Heel by Jack London, only one of many scenarios for a dystopic future.

Judgement day will come for all of us, at least if you are religious. Dante Alighieri’s epic poem The Divine Comedy gives a glimpse of the afterlife awaiting us. This book is also available in German and in the original Italian.

Enjoy – and get prepared!