THE AMISTAD SLAVE REVOLT AND AMERICAN ABOLITION

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THE AMISTAD SLAVE REVOLT AND AMERICAN ABOLITION

Name: THE AMISTAD SLAVE REVOLT AND AMERICAN ABOLITION
Author: Karen Zeinert
ISBN: 0-208-02438-7

by Karen Zeinert ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1997

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Zeinert takes on the improbable story of how 53 Africans from Sierra Leone were captured, sold into slavery, and while en route to Cuba on the Spanish ship Amistad, revolted and ended up in Connecticut. The Africans spoke no English; slavery was widespread in the US; still, the abolitionists took up the cause and carried the case all the way to the Supreme Court. The Africans were eventually freed and returned home. Zeinert (The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1993, etc.) offers an exciting account of the injustice done to these men, women, and children, beginning with the capture of Cinque, 25, in 1839, because ``he had been unable to pay off a debt on time.'' The author dwells not only on Cinque's bravery, but on the many incidents on board the Amistad that made a mutiny possible, the events that brought them to Connecticut, John Quincy Adams's extraordinary legal arguments, and on the Supreme Court's ruling that ``all human beings have a right to fight for their freedom.'' Readers will come away with an understanding of just how important a victory the Amistad affair was for American abolitionists. This book also provides a window on a rare group of ``slaves,'' those who actually saw their homeland again. (index, not seen, maps, b&w illustrations and photos, chronology, notes, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 12+)

Pub Date: May 15, 1997

ISBN: 0-208-02438-7

Page Count: 96

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1997

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LINCOLN MURDER PLOT
by Karen Zeinert

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
by Karen Zeinert

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MEMOIRS OF ANDREW SHERBURNE
by Andrew Sherburne & edited by Karen Zeinert & illustrated by Seymour Fleishman

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THE MIDDLE AGES

AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY

by Barbara A. Hanawalt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1998

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A scholarly but involving history of the Middle Ages, roughly covering the 5th—15th centuries. Hanawalt aptly sets the stage with an introduction that outlines the importance of “emperors, kings, battles, crusades, feudalism, manorialism, the rise of towns, the growth of parliament, universities, and the Church,” as well as “how average people experienced life in the Middle Ages.” She discusses the three prominent cultures (Roman, Christian, German), the first autobiography ever written (Augustine’s Confessions), three empires (Carolingian, Byzantine, Arab), architecture, ideas, monastic orders, bubonic plague, Magna Carta, Abelard’s romance with Heloise, as well as various communities and their members. Richly illustrated with black-and-white medieval maps, drawings, illustrations, photographs, documents, and artifacts, this impressive history captures an era—its glory and its breadth. (chronology, glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 12+)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-19-510359-9

Page Count: 158

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1998

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORY

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AN ASIAN TRAGEDY

AMERICA AND VIETNAM

by David Detzer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 1992

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Though not entirely bias-free, this account is fair in balancing perspectives of the major parties in the American- Vietnamese conflict. Presenting important points of interpretation in some depth, Detzer shows why they are important—e.g., the disagreement among historians on the origin of the revolt against the Diem regime: if it had been organized from Hanoi, it could have been considered an invasion rather than a civil war. He also provides an objective description of the American political outlook in the late 40's and early 50's, when Washington chose to side with the French-created South Vietnamese government, effectively showing how this outlook created a situation that could be changed only with great difficulty. Unfortunately, however, he always calls the enemy by their American names, never by their own, and the ``Pentagon Papers,'' which spurred much of the off-campus antiwar effort, are not mentioned. Too, he quotes cynics who blame antiwar mobilizing on the drafting of young men, but fails to pose a counter argument: the large numbers of veterans and women active against the war. Documentation is skimpy—only 12 endnotes for the entire book— but the bibliography/filmography is broad-based, and the photos are well keyed to the text. A worthy effort at balanced treatment of a still highly emotion-fraught subject. Chronology; index. (Nonfiction. 12+)