Why a Booktrail?
1600s, 2000s: A story shows how dramatic actions of the past can have consequences in the present.
The Richness
What you need to know before your trail
1600s: Two brothers of the O’Driscoll family and their first cousin from Baltimore, Ireland, leave their homeland in different circumstances. One volunteers as an indentured servant in Saint Kitts; the second is stolen by pirates and enslaved in Algiers; and the third is banished to Barbados by Oliver Cromwell. A Malian man is kidnapped, sold to slaves in The Gambia, and transported to Nevis.
2000s: A black woman and a white man meet in Smethwick, West Midlands, England. Do these individuals have anything in common? Spanning four centuries, this book explores themes of slavery, religion, migration, colonialism, multiculturalism and racism.
Travel Guide
Travel around Africa and the Caribbean via the story of slavery
The Richness presents the reader with a fictional story, taking place in an alternative historical timeline, chronicling events from the early 1600s to the present day. Although the text is primarily devoted to envisioning an ancestral link between himself and the Nevis-born woman he loves, Driscoll’s extensive narrative explores the varying ways in which the atrocities of the slave trade displaced so many lives, and how the repercussions are still being felt in the 21st century.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Richness
Destination/location: Ireland, Caribbean, Africa Author/guide: Stephen Driscoll Departure Time: 1640s
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