cover image Amistad: The Thunder of Freedom

Amistad: The Thunder of Freedom

David Pesci. Marlowe & Company, $22.95 (240pp) ISBN 978-1-56924-748-8

A fascinating true story along with a little fortuitous timing (Steven Spielberg is filming a movie based on the same incident) save this responsible but bloodless novelization of an 1839 cause celebre. Led by a Mende tribesman called Singbe-Pieh, the African captives aboard the slaveship Amistad freed themselves and took over the ship. After a failed attempt to sail back to Africa, they were captured and taken ashore in Connecticut, a slave state at the time. The ensuing battle, fought in the courtrooms and the papers, over whether the Africans were property or people in the eyes of the law riveted the attention of the country. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court (where John Quincy Adams presented the defense). Pesci relates this forgotten piece of American history solidly (if stolidly) through its main characters--principally Singbe-Pieh, called Joseph Cinque by the Americans, and the slaves' original attorney, Roger Baldwin. Although Pesci keeps a sharp eye on the political issues (the abolitionist movement fanning the flames, the Van Buren administration trying to put them out), his reportorial tone conveys little drama or suspense. There are some telling touches--the revelation that this was an age where keeping slaves was not as scandalous as keeping children up after dark is particularly jolting--but the overall tone is disappointingly sedate. (May)