On 2 July 1839 enslaved captives on the brig Amistad cut short the final leg of their Middle Passage from the Windward Coast of West Africa to fresh cane fields in Cuba. They killed the cook, then the captain, and resolved to return to Sierra Leone. After the rebels spent seventeen months in a jail in New Haven, Connecticut, their case ground through the US judicial system to the Supreme Court; they earned their passage touring a performance on the abolitionist circuit; and they completed their odyssey on 13 January 1842.
Marcus Rediker offers his fascinating account of the Amistad revolt as a supplement to The Slave Ship, his award-winning book on the British transatlantic slave trade. The present work has his characteristic knack for the arresting turn of phrase, keen eye for the revealing detail, and craftsmanship, molding a story around biographical sketches. His admiring portrait of the...