Queen: the story of an American family by Alex Haley and David Stevens is a partly factual historical novel which has served to bring back to the consciousness of many White Americans the plight of the Children of the Plantation - the offspring of black slave women and their white masters, who rarely acknowledged the children, who were legally their slaves. Alex Haley Alexander Palmer Haley ( August 11, 1921 - February 10, 1992) was an African American writer who was the Chief Journalist for the United States Coast Guard before retiring to become a senior editor for Readers Digest. ... A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, where the time the action takes place in predates the time of the first publication -- distinguish and contrast the genre of alternate history. ... Children of the Plantation was a euphemism used in the 19th-century United States to identify the offspring of black slave women by their white owners. ... A monument celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, erected in Victoria Tower Gardens, Millbank, Westminster, London Wiktionary has a definition of: Slavery Slavery can mean one or more related conditions which involve control of a person against his or her will, enforced by violence or...

The noted author Alex Haley (1921-1992) was the grandson of Queen, the illegitimate and unacknowledged daughter of James Jackson and his black slave woman, Easter. Although the novel alters many historical details to the extent that it cannot be treated as history, the basic outline - including the premise of James Jackson's paternity to Queen - has been accepted as fact by Jackson's white descendants. The novel recounts Queen's anguished early years as a slave girl, longing to know who her father was, and how it gradually dawned on her that he was none other than her master. After the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865 and the subsequent abolition of slavery, Queen was cast out. James Jackson would not acknowledge her as his daughter, afraid of compromising the inheritance of his legitimate children and goaded by his wife, who despised Queen. After many adventures, she married a reasonably successful former slave by the name of Haley, and had three sons by him. Alex Haley Alexander Palmer Haley ( August 11, 1921 - February 10, 1992) was an African American writer who was the Chief Journalist for the United States Coast Guard before retiring to become a senior editor for Readers Digest. ... 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the United States – forces coming mostly from the 23 northern states of the Union – and the newly-formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of 11 southern states that had declared their secession. ... 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1865 is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Abolition is the act of formally destroying something through legal means, either by making it illegal, or simply no longer allowing it to exist in any form. ... Slavery is any of a number of related conditions involving control of a person against his or her will, enforced by violence or other clear forms of coercion. ...

Alex Haley was unable to finish writing 'Queen' before he died, and it was completed by David Stevens. He left behind many boxes of research notes and a 700-page outline of the story, but David says he was mainly guided by the many, long conversations he had with Alex.