Rating: Summary: Okay Review: This book captures the life of an African prince named At-Mun. At the beggining of the book his father gets killed and his tribe gets enslaved. The slave-ship sails of without his cripple sister whose only twelve years old. During his time in slavery At-Mun he physically treated badly. He is sold twice, once right before he was to be freed. Every chance he gets he tries to find his sister. Upon his eventual emancipation, he buys a slave to free and marry her. Then he sets up his own tannery and starts a family. Overall, this non-fiction about slavery and separation evokes satisfaction. But does he find his sister? Read and find out!
Rating: Summary: An uplifting story that defines freedom for all men Review: This book is a wonderful autobiography about a man named Amos Fortune. Amos knows of his royal heritage, but lives most of his life as a slave. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in seeing a different side of slavery and who wants to learn how to find true freedom and happiness.
Rating: Summary: Fortunate enough to have read this book Review: This book is about a young African prince who is captured and brought to America and sold as a slave. Amos is somewhat fortunate because his new "family" teaches him to read and speak the English language. Elizabeth Yates takes you through Amos's fortunes and misfortunes. You will not want to put this book down.
Rating: Summary: American Academy: Essential Reading for Youth Review: This book is required reading for American Academy Middle School students, 6th grade, but is recommended for people, ages 12 and up, trying to understand early American life and the subject of slavery, particularly in the northern states. Amos Fortune is a true story about a young African prince torn from his family, people, and homeland. He undergoes a process of dehumanization, including a horrific slave-ship sea crossing before being sold as a slave into first one and then another Massachusetts family, so we see two complete portraits of slave life. Finally, he buys his own and his wife's freedom and travels to picturesque New Hampshire where he builds a homestead and legacy for himself, and perhaps plants seeds that help bring an end to that "peculiar institution." Beautifully told by Ms. Yates, we see Amos learn to read and become a faithful Christian. His childlike dream to buy his sister's freedom grows into a mature buying of the freedom of women he loves. He masters the tanning trade, which we learn about. We experience his strong and majestic character in overlooking a benighted age's slights and building his own freehold homestead, near "his" mountain, in this free country he loves. Amos Fortune is an outstanding man worthy of imitation. His story will never die or grow old. All American young people should read this book. It, along with: April Morning, by Howard Fast; A Light in the Forest, by Conrad Richter; First Lady of Faith and Courage: Abigail Adams, by Evelyn Witter; and The Autobiography, by Benjamin Franklin; paint a multifaceted view of the particular pains, prejudices and daily life in northern colonial America from the perspective of, respectively, black citizens, traditional revolutionary families, American Indians, women, and a particular famous artisan-scientist-inventor-statesman whose life spanned and intertwined itself with the century of America's birth.
Rating: Summary: Amos Fortune: Free Man Lacks Action Review: Why would you pay a lot of money for a slave that you would later release? That is the question I would ask slave owners that lived in the 1700's. Well, if you could believe it, that's what happened to Amos. He received his name from his first owners, the Copelands. When they purchased him in Boston, they had promised him freedom. He worked for many years making clothing for the family to sell. After Mr. Copeland's death, the family was forced to sell Amos to Ichabod Richardson where he made shoes until he bought freedom for himself. Later, he bought Lily, a slave woman he liked. She died free but never married Amos. He later opened a shop in the nearby town of Woburn. There he spotted the slaves Lydia and her daughter. After purchasing them, the three moved to Jaffrey where he opened a shop. I think that this book was mediocre. It lacked action and took a while for anything to happen. For example, Amos had two owners we had to learn about before he was released. To me, nothing exciting really happened that was significant. I would recommend this book to fast readers because they would get through it faster and it would seem like more would happen than would happen to a slower reader. I think that a person interested in the history of slavery would like this book.
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