Customer Reviews

Freedom's Sons: The True Story of the Amistad Mutiny

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I was driven to this book by Spielberg's movie about the Amistad Mutiny.
I was so impressed with the cruelty exposed on the film that I would like to check it in a reliable source.
Suzanne Jurmain's book is very easy to read, once is oriented to the young people at the schools.
It is a good start to the knowledge of this episode and as I mentioned in the title the book, altough not deeply documented, is sufficient enough to assure you that the facts are unfortunately true.

Exploring one of America's darkest chapters, Suzanne Jurmain gives the great gift of truth to all of her readers. Buy this book, today, as a gift for your children and grandchildren. Share with them them the reality of America's ugly flirtation with slavery, and in so doing free them from the streotypes and simplifications which too often pass among us for reality.

Ms. Jurmain chronicles, for a juvenile audience, the story of the Amistad mutiny, so movingly recounted in the movie of the same name. In so doing, she draws upon the original court records and other contemporary documents. Although this is a book for young people, she does not shy away from describing the horrors of the middle passage, or the other institutions associated with slavery. Nor, does Ms. Jurmain give in to the temptation to solely demonize the Europeans associated with the slave trade: she accurately states that many of the slaves were captured and sold by other Africans. Thus, the African diaspora was all the more tragic.

Most importantly, Ms. Jurmain breaks the myth of docile African servitude. Her portrait of Cinque and the other captive's moral courage and willingness to take their futures into their own hands is in keeping with other recent literary and film releases such as "Glory," and "The Tuskeegee Airmen." By telling the truth, Ms. Jurmain helps all of us: no matter what the color of our skin, to see that courage is not limited to any gender or race.

Buy this book for your children and gradchildren. Help them to see the promise of freedom shining through one of America's darkest chapters -- and in the process help them to dream of a brighter tomorrow.