James William, the hero to himself…It is said that heroes are made not born. In the case of James Williams, the events swirling around his life, his dreams and his suffering - even God Himself - all conspire to transform a human being, born a chattel slave, into becoming a transcendent hero for the ages. After surviving a hellish existence on a sugarcane plantation near Baltimore, James Williams finds himself escaping to a ship as a stowaway, then becoming a servant under the command of Admiral Stephen Decatur on the way to the naval battles in the Mediterranean Sea called the Barbary Coast Wars. Williams encounters a different environment from the plantation, working as a cook’s helper, but at times a life even harder than the one on the sugar plantation. He distinguishes himself in battle and as a spy, and after laboring on a rug merchant’s boat he becomes shipwrecked and finds himself washed up on a beach near Athens, Greece. He is rescued by monks and taken to Abbot Symeon who provides him shelter as he recuperates. Having learned Greek on board the merchant boat, Williams begins to realize that he has landed in the midst of an uprising – the uprising that quickly becomes the War of Independence for Greeks seeking liberation from the 400 year tyranny under the Ottoman Turks. Along the way, James Williams meets, work with, and struggles with Philhellenes such as Lord George Byron, George Jarvis, and others. He participates in naval battles and the famous Siege of Missolonghi. But this fictionalized historical novel is not just about one man’s adventures, heroic as they might be. It is about an Odyssey of man born a slave who reaches the pinnacle of heroism in a land far away from his roots. And yet his adventures, while approaching a mythical status, pale in comparison to the emotional growth Williams undergoes: slave to sailor to spy to battle hardened hero, to shipwrecked victim, to lover, to seeker of truth - and finally to a moment of enlightenment at his physical death– when Jesus Christ allows James Williams a glimpse into his destiny! At this point, a new journey starts, one in which James Williams, now as an unknown traveler meets Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jesse Owens, and Maya Angelou, in their childhoods, when all of them are living anonymously in deprivation. His simple but profound advice will influence their futures, transforming them into heroes. His voice is the voice of all slaves of the world. At the completion of his travels, James William reaches his ultimate destination when he finally meets Christ. This is the moment of the truth…when life takes its meaning…To Breathe To Believe is a fictionalized account based on the true story of an escaped slave, James Williams, whose amazing life has again come alive after the author’s arduous research and study. He is the only black slave ever to have escaped bondage and instead of living a quiet life in freedom chooses to struggle for the freedom of another subjugated nation. The life and adventures of James Williams is a story for the ages, as Williams returns to tell future generations about the continuity of life through struggle and love.