The Cords of Bondage: A Novel 1776

The Cords of Bondage is a short historical novel set in Philadelphia in 1776 and told through the eyes of Vincent, an enslaved man serving in General George Washington's wartime household. Moving through the weeks before and after the Declaration of Independence, the story follows Vincent as he overhears the language of liberty in passages, chambers, streets, and yards, and measures it against the realities of bondage that govern his own life. As the new nation speaks its boldest truths, Vincent is forced to reckon with both the grandeur and the failure of its beginnings. What emerges is not only a portrait of the nation's first days seen from its margins, but the inward awakening of a man who comes to claim his own dignity, moral judgment, and place-however hidden-in the story of America's founding.