Kindred

The novel follows Dana, a modern-day Black woman living in 1976 Los Angeles, who is inexplicably and repeatedly transported back in time to a pre-Civil War plantation in Maryland. She is forced to protect her white, slave-owning ancestor to ensure her own existence, confronting the brutal realities of slavery firsthand.

Octavia E. Butler published this groundbreaking science fiction novel in 1979. It has since become her best-known work and is widely taught in both literature and history courses across the United States.

Unlike traditional sci-fi tales, Butler intentionally leaves the mechanics of time travel unexplained and devoid of scientific gadgets. The travel is triggered purely by a psychological and physical connection, as Dana is pulled back whenever her ancestor's life is in danger.

While the time travel is fictional, the historical elements of the novel are meticulously researched and reflect the true brutal reality of chattel slavery. Butler was inspired to write the book after hearing about the ways earlier generations of Black people survived the antebellum South.