The sun is my undoing

This is a story of Bristol and the slave trade in the 18th century; it is the story of the great shipping family of Flood, whose destinies led them out from Bristol to the Gold Coast, to Cuba and to Spain; it is, more particularly, the story of the scapegrace Matthew Flood and the two loves of his life, Pallas, the English beauty, and Sheba, the exquisite African Slave whom he married.