A JAMAICAN LADY is a work of fiction based in truth. It is a story about two people who are from different races, different backgrounds, different countries and different eras. Still, Tiana and Phillip develop a special relationship during a time of enormous grief. The story takes place in St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest permanently settled community in the United States and the place where Spanish slaves brought to Florida by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés worked and lived. The book touches deeply on the loss of a spouse and how wonderful professional caregivers can be in helping people through end-of-life processes. For all of us, life as we now know it will end, but death does not have to be feared. True love for another lives on in our hearts forever. Tiana and Phillip work to piece together the stories of their ancestors, including Tiana's seven-great grandfather, a second-generation slave who escaped from a South Carolina plantation. Tiana believes and seeks to confirm that he joined the British army to gain his freedom and moved to Jamaica following America's War of Independence. A JAMAICAN LADY also recounts the history of slavery in the Caribbean that began with the first voyage of Christopher Columbus. It chronicles the magnitude and abuses of the slave trade and how its impacts have never been adequately acknowledged and discussed. History is both fact and teacher. Mindful of what can happen, we will ensure that the rule of law protects us all so that slavery never happens again.
