Weepin' Time: Voices of Slavery in Coastal Georgia

When thirty-nine-year-old Roswell King became manager of both the Butler Island and Hampton Point plantations on the Georgia coast in 1802, he vowed to improve discipline and thoroughly enforce the plantation rules; he truly was a force to be reckoned with. For nearly eighty years, more than 900 black slaves toiled in the rice and cotton fields owned by Major Pierce Butler. These plantations made Butler the richest man in America.

Weepin’ Time narrates the fictional story of generations of black and white people who lived out their lives on the plantation, interacting with one another while struggling to maintain their own values and identities. The story focuses on how blacks and whites coped individually and collectively with the egregious circumstances brought about by slavery.

Based on historic facts, this novel presents a portrayal of life as it truly existed under slavery and shows firsthand the atrocities suffered by slaves. Slavery—upon which both plantations were built—created a complex social order for both the blacks and the whites. It was not a pretty sight to witness; it was truly a Weepin’ Time.