The Hour and the Man, An Historical Romance

Set in a Caribbean colony during the revolutionary era, the narrative follows escalating conflict among white planters, free people of color, and enslaved workers after metropolitan reforms extend civil rights to freeborn persons of color. White elites respond with political obstruction, public festivities, and the election of their own assembly while simmering abuses and earlier punitive executions deepen resentment. Quiet exchanges, social rituals, and official proclamations mask anxieties until organized insurrection breaks out, imperiling plantations and forcing characters across social ranks to confront shifting allegiances, race, and the limits of colonial authority.