Oxherding Tale Author:Charles Johnson Charles Johnson, winner of a 1990 National Book Award, offers the comic philosophical adventures of Andrew Hawkins, a mulatto slave born in the antebellum South. In a desparate flight to freedom, Andrew seeks to escape a bondage that is not only physical, but also spiritual, not only racial, but also sexual, and along the way he encounters an am... more »azing cast of characters: Reb, the coffinmaker, an all-wise African magician who befriends Andrew and follows him north; and Horace Bannon, the soulcatcher, who captures a runaway slave not with dogs or guns, but with his soul -- and he's hot on Andrew's trail.« less