The Slave Dancer, by Paula Fox, reflects on an extremely trying time in American history where blacks were slaves and some kids couldn't get away from their duty. It was 1840 and the slave business was most likely as big as the cotton market they had to tend in the first place. In Louisiana there were more boats than cotton and the slaves worked on them. One boat in particular called " The Moonlight, " a slave boat which crashed in the Golf of Mexico, had a boy with a normal story, but an amazing one when he got off. Jessie Bollier, a white boy picked up at the slave market by the docks of New Orleans, was forced to play his fife for the slaves if they would refuse to work. Jessie wanted an end to the cruelty. But it was nowhere close as terrifying to the shipwreck experience in the end of the book. Him and his slave friend Ras survived. Jessie only has emotional scars to tell his story.