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Blackoaks #1
Master of Blackoaks
To all appearances the Baynard Plantation, Blackoaks, was profitable, luxurious, and peaceful. But underneath the surface raged strange and savage passions.
Ferrell Baynard - he loved his wife but slept with the beautiful black slave girl Jeanne d'Arc.
Kathy Kenric - a woman of fabulous beauty whose husband left her bed for a perverted lust.
Styles Kenric - Kathy's husband. He wanted Blackoaks, and would do anything to get it.
Ferrell Junior - he had fallen in love with the town whore and the town wouldn't let him forget it.
Hunter - a handsome Yankee with abolitionist ideas. He found solace and torment with Kenric's wife.
Moab - black, beautiful, 15 years old. A superb Fulani stud who had already tasted the pleasures of a white woman.
Ferrell Baynard - he loved his wife but slept with the beautiful black slave girl Jeanne d'Arc.
Kathy Kenric - a woman of fabulous beauty whose husband left her bed for a perverted lust.
Styles Kenric - Kathy's husband. He wanted Blackoaks, and would do anything to get it.
Ferrell Junior - he had fallen in love with the town whore and the town wouldn't let him forget it.
Hunter - a handsome Yankee with abolitionist ideas. He found solace and torment with Kenric's wife.
Moab - black, beautiful, 15 years old. A superb Fulani stud who had already tasted the pleasures of a white woman.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
464 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
4 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Ashley Carter
52 books10 followersPseudonym of Harry Whittington, who also wrote as Blaine Stevens and Harriet Kathryn Myers.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 27, 2008
At one time a popular subgenre was "Plantation" fiction. Most of it was pretty sexualized and I read a few books for that reason back when I was a teenager. This was by far the best from that bunch that I ever read. It actually seemed to have a decent story. Still, I wouldn't rank it very high on the great stories list.
February 19, 2011
Erotic novel based around slavery in america. Interesting but a bit.. ummm.. :\
July 29, 2017
After the commercial success of his 1966 Man From Uncle novel generated practically no money in his pocket, Harry Whittington went to work as an editor in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working for the Rural Electrification Administration. "I'd reached the low place where writing lost its delight."
In 1974 at age 59, Whittington quit his government job and went back to writing full-time. From his small but elegant house overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, he wrote his comeback novel, Master of Blackoaks (1976), a Deep-South 'slave gothic' written as Ashley Carter (Whittington's own name appears on the copyright page).
Master of Blackoaks was a hit. It's also an awesome book. Family drama, intrigue, violence, mucho sex, and social commentary abound as the drama unfolds among members of the Baynard Family and their slaves on the struggling Alabama plantation known as Blackoaks.
The book reminded me of Ken Follett's PILLARS OF THE EARTH with all the characters jockeying for position to achieve divergent goals. The plantation violence is raw and in-your-face. The sex scenes are well executed. The slaves, masters, and interlopers are vivid characters.
The book tackles difficult questions about race and culture without ever being racist or showing a lack of compassion for those swept up in the morally repugnant culture of slavery. The economic realities of the plantation life were explained well in the story as the masters of Blackoaks struggled to survive.
The book spawned three sequels that I can't wait to read.
Whittington learned propulsive plotting from his Gold Medal crime and western novels. Although this isn't an action novel, he brings the same discipline to this lost masterpiece. Despite the cover, it's not a romance novel. It's a literary novel with crazy family drama swirling for nearly 500 hard-to-put-down pages.
Highly recommended.
(Hat tip to Ben Bridges on the background regarding the creation of this book and Pete Brandvold for alerting me to its existence.)
In 1974 at age 59, Whittington quit his government job and went back to writing full-time. From his small but elegant house overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, he wrote his comeback novel, Master of Blackoaks (1976), a Deep-South 'slave gothic' written as Ashley Carter (Whittington's own name appears on the copyright page).
Master of Blackoaks was a hit. It's also an awesome book. Family drama, intrigue, violence, mucho sex, and social commentary abound as the drama unfolds among members of the Baynard Family and their slaves on the struggling Alabama plantation known as Blackoaks.
The book reminded me of Ken Follett's PILLARS OF THE EARTH with all the characters jockeying for position to achieve divergent goals. The plantation violence is raw and in-your-face. The sex scenes are well executed. The slaves, masters, and interlopers are vivid characters.
The book tackles difficult questions about race and culture without ever being racist or showing a lack of compassion for those swept up in the morally repugnant culture of slavery. The economic realities of the plantation life were explained well in the story as the masters of Blackoaks struggled to survive.
The book spawned three sequels that I can't wait to read.
Whittington learned propulsive plotting from his Gold Medal crime and western novels. Although this isn't an action novel, he brings the same discipline to this lost masterpiece. Despite the cover, it's not a romance novel. It's a literary novel with crazy family drama swirling for nearly 500 hard-to-put-down pages.
Highly recommended.
(Hat tip to Ben Bridges on the background regarding the creation of this book and Pete Brandvold for alerting me to its existence.)
August 25, 2023
Probably closer to reality that what we learned at school. Extremely well written. You may not be happy you read this story, by will be horrifically enlightened about the slave culture in our country (and world). The world between the covers of this book will remain with you for a long time.
I know is it fiction and loaded with sex, but that does not mean it is totally unbelievable, on the contrary…
I know is it fiction and loaded with sex, but that does not mean it is totally unbelievable, on the contrary…
May 26, 2009
When I was growing up I lived way out in the country and had very little access to books. I read everything I could find. A relative of mine read a number of these "plantation romance/soft core porn" things and so I read a few too because it was all I could find. This one was by far and away the best of the five or six of these I read. I actualy thought it was pretty sexy, of course I was pretty young.
These days, I can't but imagine they would be completely politically incorrect. They all depict the days of southern plantation slavery and usually involve black male slaves with white plantation owner's wifes or daughters or such. Some of them had white male owners with black female slaves. It was quite a little cottage industry at the time.
These days, I can't but imagine they would be completely politically incorrect. They all depict the days of southern plantation slavery and usually involve black male slaves with white plantation owner's wifes or daughters or such. Some of them had white male owners with black female slaves. It was quite a little cottage industry at the time.
November 14, 2011
i read it years ago but rereading them i have many of the books but there are some that i don't
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews