#25--The Captive by Joyce Hansen

Kofi is the beloved son of an Ashanti chief who has been betrayed by a beloved family slave, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in Massachusetts, post American Revolution--when slavery was illegal, but often tolerated.  Kofi does not understand what is happening.  All he wants is to get back to his family and village. He even tries to convince his captors that if they return him they will be richly rewarded.  Which, of course, they all laugh at and continue in their nefarious ways.

On the route to America, he befriends two other young boys on the ship: one, Tim, is a white indentured servant, and the other, Joseph, a black orphan who was born on the ship.  These three boys become inseparable and are eventually purchased together by a Puritan man and his wife.  While slavery is illegal in Massachusetts, white indentured servitude is not.  The man is not kind to any of the help on the farm, but especially not to the three boys.  The mistress gives all three boys lessons and Kofi especially eats it up.  Kofi eventually tries to explain to the mistress, thinking she is his friend, that he wants to go back to Africa to his family and village.  She is horrified and from then on holds him at a distance, demanding that the three boys pray for their salvation--even though there is never any explanation to the boys why they go to a long building once a week or the purpose behind the kneeling every night while the master drones one.

Kofi and his two friends eventually escape and end up on a boat belonging to Paul Cuffe, who happened to be a free black and the captain of the ship, as well as a Quaker.  The boys are taken to jail because though the master claims he has paid good money for Tim's contract, the boys claim ill-treatment and that Kofi is a kidnapped African and Joseph is an illegal slave.  In order to sort everything out, there is a trial.  Paul Cuffe has promised to take the boys under his wing and make them his apprentices in ship-building.  The boys are eventually awarded their freedom and go to live with Cuffe and his family.

In the epilogue, Kofi is an adult, married, and working tirelessly with Joseph and other Quakers to end slavery and to make life better for blacks in America.

This book is based on a journal from the late 1700s.  I was able to find out a little more information about Paul Cuffe but Kofi is a creation of the author's imagination, based on the journal.

This was a quick, easy read that I will recommend to students interested in this time period, or to teachers working on a history of slavery lesson/unit.

Happy Reading!!