Crying Souls in The Slave Dancer It all began in the cold month of January 1840, in a town familiar to many; New Orleans. The fog covered the streets and alleys of the city like a heavy blanket. Rain constantly flooded the seaside resort, and the sound of drunken boatmen and slaves celebrating their terrible feasts surrounded the area. New Orleans was where Jessie Bollier lived, and it's where he was captured that dark January evening. Jessie then found herself aboard the Moonlight, the slave ship with its towering sails and masts, cabins and storage space below deck. For these were places where Jessie had to "slave dance" and where the captain and crew spent many weeks living in fear of the slaves, of each other, and of being discovered. The story then briefly took the ship's crew and captain to Whydah in the Bight of Benin, the rugged coasts of Africa, where multitudes of slaves were captured and mistreated. Then they crossed the Atlantic again to land in the Gulf of Mexico. The Moonlight was anchored there and remained because this was where the ship submerged. Two passengers then washed up on the banks of the Mississippi where Jessie and Ras meet Daniel, their future friend. Ultimately, the story ends where it began... the noisy streets of New Orleans. The Slave Dancer is written from the first-person point of view, through Jessie's eyes, and projects a depressing and melancholy mood. It is the tragic song of the slaves. The hero of the story is the thirteen-year-old boy Jessie Bollier. “He's a scary guy,” comments Captain Cawthorne. He is brought aboard the slaver to make the slaves dance, to keep them healthy. Jessie is innocent and doesn't fully understand her purpose. "My life had turned upside down. My friend was a man who had put pressure on me. I didn't like the man who had befriended me." Jessie doesn't realize what's going on inside him. He doesn't realize that these men, women and children are slaves... they are property. He doesn't notice the cruel treatment meted out to the slaves, but he doesn't know why. Jessie himself explains it best: "My stomach rebelled." The antagonist is surprisingly Jessie, but after the trip. He went through a lot of changes after the hike. "At the beginning I made a promise to myself: I would not do anything that had to do with the use of slaves.