Brighton Publishing signs author Daniel Taylor for “Seasoned Rum”

MANASSAS, Va. - Oct. 9, 2014 - PRLog -- MESA (AZ)—Brighton Publishing LLC proudly announces the signing of author Daniel Mabrey Taylor’s latest work, Seasoned Rum “The Mistaken Slave Girl.” Written with a sensitive understanding of both human nature and historic events, the story is based on the early 19^th century New Orleans slave trade.

The initial eBook release is tentatively slated for release in early 2015, and will be available in all popular eBook formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other fine retailers with the print release scheduled for summer, 2015. Distribution will be through Ingram, the world’s largest book wholesaler, and worldwide through the Espresso Book Machine network.

Bertrand d’Ogeron, a Dutch merchant, felt confident his quadroon granddaughters, Scholastique Bigonesse and her sister, Beauchance, would experience a better life in the Orleans territories of New France. Bertrand would later pay for their passage to New Orleans as free persons of color in 1818 under an outdated but effective “Placage” system. Placage was an important tool used by the French and Spanish to better legitimize girls of color or young “roon” women into freedom by selling them into servitude for a period of time before they could become free. Often times, Placage offered wealthy planters an opportunity for concubines since the supply of European women was scarce in the colonial southern United States, especially in the Territory of Orleans.

Scholastique was reminded often about the importance of retaining the documentation of her freedom outside of the relative safety of the city of New Orleans, lest she be placed under arrest as an escaped slave. Thomas Eastland, a business partner of Bertrand’s, had agreed to take his granddaughters under Placage agreements and have them work for him at his home in New Orleans. Eastland had placed two other freed female slaves years before who were taking care of his flat while away at his home near Bon Air, Tennessee. Before leaving Willemstad in 1818, the girls were both mentally and physically injured as the result of the duplicity and greed of the Dutch governmental administrator’s nephew, Willem Kikkert, and his agent.

“In a tale of both exploitation and greed, author Daniel Taylor takes the reader on a journey into the New Orleans slave trade in a sensitive, yet compelling masterpiece of fiction,” said Kathie McGuire, director of Brighton Publishing LLC. “Seasoned Rum is a deeply moving work, so passionately engaging, it is impossible to put down.”

Author Daniel Taylor was born in New Orleans, but finds himself spending much of his time working in the Washington, D.C. area. This is Mr. Taylor’s second published work. His first work, Grey Blue Water was published in 2013. Currently, Mr. Taylor calls Manassas, Virginia his home.