"Wilson's (The Kidnapped, 2018, etc.) new volume of historical fiction weaves together 24 short stories to create a remarkable, multihued portrait of America." "Memorable characters and unique historical details illuminate slavery's complex legacy." -- Kirkus Reviews
The Resistors is a parallel sequel to 2018's The Kidnapped. It focuses on blacks, whites, and Native Americans resisting pre-Civil War oppression while attempting to establish dignified identities. It is also in the voice of Sarah, one of the author's direct ancestors. She was the daughter of Esi and Kofi two fictionalized Fante kidnapped from West Africa in 1795. With the help of Quakers, together with two brothers, Robin and Dan, Sarah escaped from being enslaved in Culpeper, Virginia and settled in Warren County, Ohio where she met and married the Scots-Irish Quaker, Charles Ferguson. It is imagined that Sarah was primarily educated by her father who himself was taught reading and writing by Nathan Prescott, his slave master, and secondarily through two years of education at Goose Creek Friends School, a Quaker school in Northern Virginia, renown for being integrated prior to Nat Turner's revolt which led to state laws forbidding the education of people of color.