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The great escape : a true story of forced labor and immigrant dreams in America  Cover Image Book Book

The great escape : a true story of forced labor and immigrant dreams in America / Saket Soni.

Soni, Saket, 1977- (author.).

Summary:

"In 2007, Saket Soni received an anonymous phone call from an Indian migrant worker inside a Mississippi labor camp. He and 500 other men were living in squalor in Gulf Coast "man camps," surrounded by barbed wire, watched by armed guards, crammed into cold trailers with putrid portable toilets, forced to eat moldy bread and frozen rice. Worse, lured by the promise of good work and green cards, the men had desperately scraped together up to 20,000 dollars each to apply for this "opportunity" to rebuild oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina, putting their families into impossible debt. Soni traces the workers' extraordinary escape; their march on foot to Washington, DC; and their 31-day hunger strike to bring attention to their cause"-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781643750088
  • ISBN: 1643750089
  • Physical Description: 352 pages ; 24 cm
  • Edition: First edition.
  • Publisher: Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, [2023]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references.
Formatted Contents Note:
Dreams -- Man camp -- Escape -- Truth march -- Hunted -- Faith -- Epilogue: forgetting.
Subject: Forced labor > Mississippi > History > 21st century.
Immigrants > United States > Social conditions > 21st century.
Foreign workers > Mississippi > History > 21st century.
Labor camps > Mississippi > History > 21st century.
Escapes > Mississippi > History > 21st century.
Exploitation.
Mississippi.
United States.

Available copies

  • 5 of 5 copies available at Missouri Evergreen. (Show)
  • 1 of 1 copy available at North Kansas City.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 5 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
North Kansas City Public Library 331.11 SONI 2023 (Text) 0001012503006 Nonfiction Available -

Summary: "In 2007, Saket Soni received an anonymous phone call from an Indian migrant worker inside a Mississippi labor camp. He and 500 other men were living in squalor in Gulf Coast "man camps," surrounded by barbed wire, watched by armed guards, crammed into cold trailers with putrid portable toilets, forced to eat moldy bread and frozen rice. Worse, lured by the promise of good work and green cards, the men had desperately scraped together up to 20,000 dollars each to apply for this "opportunity" to rebuild oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina, putting their families into impossible debt. Soni traces the workers' extraordinary escape; their march on foot to Washington, DC; and their 31-day hunger strike to bring attention to their cause"--

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