{"product_id":"the-sweet-gardenia","title":"The Sweet Gardenia","description":"\u003cp\u003eBilly McHugh is a handsome, 16-year-old from Charleston, South Carolina, who sails to West Africa as a cabin boy on his fatherÕs slave ship--The Wandering Maiden. They pack the hold with hundreds of Kongo and Lucumi slaves, elude the Royal NavyÕs slave patrol and set a course for Cuba; delivering their cargo of human ebony to don Fernando de Castilla, the wealthy and powerful owner of La Dulce Gardenia, a large sugar plantation west of Havana. Billy is captivated by the tropical island of Cuba and the Spanish language and culture. And when he meets Dolores, the beautiful 15-year-old, light-skinned mulatto and illegitimate daughter of Don Fernando, he's  swept off his feet by her stunning beauty and sweet, simple nature.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eThey fall in love, eventually marry and struggle endlessly with the contentious issue of race, at a time when one drop of black blood makes you a Ònigger.Ó The stakes are raised considerably for social climbing Billy, when Dolores gives birth to a brown- skinned baby boy.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eThe innocent child becomes the source of ever-increasing tension and conflict in the coupleÕs relationship, threatening the marriage and mirroring the explosive racial divide that has plunged the Nation into bloody civil war.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksWholesale","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44261385404577,"sku":"9780578233284","price":51.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0462\/1120\/3233\/files\/6d2vr8-front-shortedge-384.jpg?v=1713931066","url":"https:\/\/bookswholesale.myshopify.com\/products\/the-sweet-gardenia","provider":"BooksWholesale","version":"1.0","type":"link"}