Frank Carlson Library

The new 'Benjamin January' novel from the best-selling author
Abishag Shaw is seeking vengeance for his brother's murder - and Benjamin January is seeking money after his bank crashes. Far beyond the frontier, in the depths of the Rocky Mountains, both are to be found at the great Rendezvous of the Mountain Men: a month-long orgy of cheap booze, shooting-matches, tall tales and cut-throat trading. But at the rendezvous, the discovery...

A historical mystery in 1830s New Orleans whose protagonist is a free man of color. Dr. Benjamin January, back in America after 15 years in Paris where he became a surgeon, goes to the help of a woman. In revenge, he is framed by her enemies for murder and must clear his name. A look at the complicated race relations of the period in New Orleans.

In A Free Man of Color and Sold Down the River, Benjamin January guided readers through the seductive maze of New Orleans' darkest quarters. Now January joins the orchestra of the city's top opera house — only to become enmeshed in a web of hate and greed more murderous than any drama onstage.
In 1835, the cold February streets glitter with masked revelers in Carnival costumes. An even more brilliant display is promised at the...

Nineteenth-century New Orleans is a blazing hotbed of scorching politics and personal vendettas. And it's into this fire that Benjamin January falls when he is hired to follow Oliver Weems, a bank official who has absconded with $100,000 in gold and securities. But it's more than just a job for January. The missing money is vital to the survival of the school for freed slaves that he and his wife Rose have founded.
Following the suspected embezzler—and...

A biography of a remarkable black girl growing up in the mid-1800's in Manhatten, N.Y.

In 1850s Pittsburgh, thirteen-year-old Owen leaves his younger brother and sneaks aboard a circus housed in a riverboat, where he befriends a freed slave, learns to work with elephants, and finally comes to terms with the choices he has made in his difficult life.

Cčile Rey, whose prosperous family are free people of color, makes friends with Marie-Grace Gardner, a doctor's daughter who has just returned to her native New Orleans in 1853, and persuades her to change places at their separate Mardi Gras balls.

The diary of a sixteen-year-old free African American who lived in Massachusettts in 1854 records her schooling, participation in the antislavery movement, and concern for an arrested fugitive slave. Includes sidebars, activities, and a timeline related to this era.