Lance Levens

Steal Away Lance Levens

Steal Away, my 70,000-wd. Christian/magical realism novel, takes place in early nineteenth century Middle Georgia when teaching slaves to read the Bible was against the law. Jacob Wells, a twenty-year-old slave, knows how to read and wants to free the souls of his people, even if their bodies are trapped in chattel bondage.

The novel opens with the death of his mentor, Mr. Alan Cudjoe, a free black, murdered for doing what Jacob aspires to. Beside Sarah, his sweetheart, his only friend is Legs, a comedic dwarf born with his feet attached to his torso. Jacob plants scriptures and warrior angels spring up who help Jacob in his battle.

When he's eventually caught teaching, Jacob's master, the benevolent and literary Mr. Gus McBride, refuses to flog him, but his fellow planters force Mr. Gus to do it. After his recovery from the beating, disenchanted and depressed, Jacob meets an alluring white girl and succumbs to lust, betraying Sarah. With time, he realizes how wicked he's become and enters into a season of penitence. He starves himself.

Dying from hunger and haunted by hellish visions, he's rescued by a she-goat whose milk-bursting udder saves his life. In the shop where he works, seven Haitian warriors appear, soliciting Jacob's help to murder the landowners. He and Sarah write a note to Mr. Gus warning him of the Haitian plan, but it's intercepted by Mrs. McBride, who's convinced Jacob has an evil spirit and believes he wants to kill Mr. Gus. The Haitians butcher only one family. The sheriff catches and locks the murderers in a barn and burns them alive inside, but the landowners learn the Haitians met with Jacob before the attack and accuse him of collusion. The sheriff arrests him.

Legs and Sarah and Mr. Gus try to stop the mob at the jailhouse, but they're over-powered and Jacob is hung. A warrior angel saves his spirit. After Jacob's death, Mr. Gus erects The Jacob Wells School for slaves. Sarah will be its first teacher and Mr. Gus will offer instruction in poetry, his first love.