Sergeant

From his noble childhood in the kingdom of Borno to being kidnapped into slavery, the inspiring life-story of Nicholas Said is an epic journey that takes him from Africa and the Ottoman Empire through Czarist Russia and, finally, to heroic acclaim in the American Civil War. In the late 1830s a young Black man was born into a world of wealth and privilege in the powerful, thousand-year-old African kingdom of Borno. But instead ofbecoming a respected general like his fearsome father (who was known as The Lion), Nicolas Said's fate was to fight a very different kind of battle. At the age of thirteen, Said was kidnapped and sold into slavery, beginning an epic journey that would take him across Africa, Asia, Europe, and eventually theUnited States, where he would join one of the first African American regiments in the Union Army. Nicholas Said would then spend the rest of his life fighting forequality. Along the way, Said encountered such luminaries as Queen Victoria and Czar Nicholas I, fought Civil War battles that would turn the war for the North,established schools to educate newly freed Black children, and served as one of the first Black voting registrars. InThe Sergeant,Said's epic (and largely unknown) story is brought to light by globe-trotting, Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Dean Calbreath in a meticulouslyresearched and approachable biography. Through the lens of Said's continent-crossing life, Calbreath examines the parallels and differences in the ways slaverywas practiced from a global and religious perspective, and he highlights how Said's experiences echo the discrimination, segregation, and violence that are stillbeing reckoned with today. There has never been a more voracious appetite for stories documenting the African American experience, andThe Sergeant's unique perspective of slaveryfrom a global perspective will resonate with a wide audience.