1794–Four hundred Mozambican slaves aboard the Portuguese slave ship São José Paquete de Africa, bound for Brazil, are shipwrecked at the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa. Of the two hundred who survive the tempest and catastrophe, a pair evade re-capture and re-sale the next day on the town’s slave block.
With the wild South Atlantic at their backs, before them soar the impassable cliffs of Table Mountain. Blocking the pair’s coastal escape to the north lies Cape Town with its gallows and whipping post, to the south lies a British garrison, encamped to survey and defend the fledgling colony against the warring French.
This is the tale of that couple’s hope for nothing but freedom.
