The Amistad Revolt: Memory, Slavery, and the Politics of Identity in the United States and Sierra Leone

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Frontispiece

The Amistad Revolt This page intentionally left blank MEMORY, SLAVERY, AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY IN THE UNITED STATES AND SIERRA LEONE The Amistad Revolt lyunolu Folayan Osagie UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS ATHENS AND LONDON Paperback edition, 2003© 2000 by the University of Georgia Press Athens, Georgia 30602 www.ugapress.org All rights reserved Designed by Erin Kirk New Set in 10 on 13 Sabon by G&S Typesetters Printed digitally in the United States of America The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this book as follows: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Osagie, lyunolu Folayan, 1960The Amistad revolt: memory, slavery, and the politics of identity in the United States and Sierra Leone / lyunolu Folayan Osagie. xvii, 180 p.: ill.; 24cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. [i6i]-i74) and index. ISBN 0-8203-2.2.2.4-5 (alk. paper) i. Amistad (Schooner) 2. Slave insurrections—United States. 3. African Americans—Race identity. 4. Group identity— Political aspects—United States. 5. Memory—Social aspects— United States. 6. Memory—Social aspects—Sierra Leone. 7. Freedmen—Sierra Leone—History—19th century—Case studies. 8. Group identity—Political aspects—Sierra Leone. I. Title.£447 .073 2OOO 326'.0973—dc2i 99-087625 Paperback ISBN-I3: 978-0-8203-2465-4 ISBN-IO: 0-8203-2465-5 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available ISBN for this digital edition: 07B-0-S203-2725-9 To God be the Glory Shuttles in the rocking loom of history, the dark ships move, the dark ships move, their bright ironical names like jests of kindness on a murderer's mouth; plough through thrashing glister toward fata morgana's luscent melting shore, weave toward New World littorals that are mirage and myth and actual shore. Voyage through death, voyage whose chartings are unlove. "MIDDLE PASSAGE," BY ROBERT HAYDEN ...