[Margaret Pilkington]

Eric you are a master......of obfuscation.
I wonder just how many of the books you quote have been read by anyone who isn't doing a degree in Literature, History or some other such subject.
You mention academics...ah well, what they read is different to what is being commented on in this thread.
I am pretty sure that not many folk will read them for the pleasure of the story.
The kind of stories that this thread alludes to are the one which clearly are for 'pleasure reading', but also give an insight of the life and times of a young boy in America at the time of slavery........the writer always writes from their own perspective, so they are writing social commentary....whether that was their intention or not.
How can it be otherwise...we write what we know...what our life experineces have taught us...therfore that bit of experience says something about us, to anyone who then comes after and wishes to read what we penned.

You seem to be a very learned man, and far too serious to participate in such a lowly debate with us 'commoners'. (tug forelock and walks away shaking head)