Blood Slaves

Markus Redmond

• Publisher: Dafina
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN:
  9781496753182
• Subtopic: Historical Fiction

For fans of Ryan Coogler's Sinners and readers of Victor LaValle, Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, and Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, this ingenious reimagining of the vampire origin story set during the early days of American slavery blends alternate history with supernatural horror, as the last surviving member of an ancient African vampire tribe meets a slave desperate for freedom, and together, they lead an army of enslaved people in a cinematically blood-soaked battle for freedom and revenge.

In the Province of Carolina, 1710, freedom seems unattainable for Willie, for his beloved Gertie, and for their unborn child. They live, suffer, and toil under their brutal master, James "Big Jim" Barrow, whose grand plantation was built by the blood, sweat, and tears of the enslaved. To flee this hell on earth is to be hunted and killed—until one strange night Willie is offered a dark hope by Rafazi, an enigmatic slave with an irresistible and blood-chilling path to liberation.

Hailing from the Kingdom of Ghana, Rafazi is the lone survivor of the Ramanga, an African vampire tribe rendered nearly extinct by plague. Rafazi has roamed the world for centuries with an undying desire to replenish the power that once defined his heritage. In Willie, Rafazi has found his first biddable subject to be turned and to help in a hungry revolt. And Willie desires nothing more than to free his people from malicious bondage. Whatever it takes.

One by one, as an army of blood slaves thirsting for revenge is gathered, the headstrong Gertie fears that no good can come from the vampiric legacy that courses through Rafazi's veins. Willie knows that only evil can fight evil. And when the woman he loves stands between the reemergence of the Ramanga and the justified slaughter of the oppressors, Willie must make an irreversible decision. Only one thing is certain: on the Barrow plantation, and beyond, blood will spill.

Table of contents

• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Content Warnings
• Epigraph
• Author's Note
• Map
• Chapter Epigraph 1
• One: 1407, the Final Year of the Ramanga
• Two: 1710, Province of Carolina
• Three: The Barrow Plantation
• Four: Toil and Trouble
• Five: Last of the Ramanga Tribe
• Chapter Epigraph 2
• Six: Humanity, Interrupted
• Seven: The Breeding Rooms
• Eight: A Seed Planted
• Chapter Epigraph 3
• Nine: Irene’s Lament
• Ten: Out of the Mouths of Babes
• Eleven: Between Death and Vengeance
• Chapter Epigraph 4
• Twelve: An Unbelievable Truth
• Thirteen: Rafazi’s Task
• Fourteen: A First Taste
• Fifteen: Two Girls and a Boy
• Chapter Epigraph 5
• Sixteen: Monster
• Seventeen: A Lesson in Blood
• Eighteen: What Evil Breeds
• Nineteen: Tales of Ramanga
• Twenty: A Point of Focus
• Twenty-One: To Live or Die
• Chapter Epigraph 6
• Twenty-Two: Kwadzo Okoro
• Twenty-Three: Elixir from the Gods
• Twenty-Four: The Native
• Twenty-Five: A Simple Solution
• Chapter Epigraph 7
• Twenty-Six: Before Daybreak
• Twenty-Seven: Too High a Price
• Chapter Epigraph 8
• Twenty-Eight: Twenty-Three
• Twenty-Nine: There Will Be War
• Thirty: The Fear of God
• Thirty-One: The Burden of Restraint
• Thirty-Two: Best Laid Plans
• Thirty-Three: Bring on the Night
• Thirty-Four: Charity’s Soirée
• Chapter Epigraph 9
• Thirty-Five: Show Him to Me
• Thirty-Six: The Crimson Crusade
• Thirty-Seven: The Good in Evil
• Thirty-Eight: Return from the Red
• Thirty-Nine: One Uppity Slave
• Chapter Epigraph 10
• Forty: Love Versus Hate
• Forty-One: By the Blood of Gamab
• Chapter Epigraph 11
• Forty-Two: Of Blood and Fire
• Forty-Three: Blood Rising
• Epilogue: Bring Her Back to Me
• Discussion Questions
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Teaser