Black Mutiny: The Revolt on the Schooner Amistad

by William A. Owens, Derrick A. Bell (Introduction), Dick Hill

"Black Mutiny" is the historical retelling of one of our nation's most dramatic national crises. It is one among many historical sources used in the development of the new motion picture "Amistad." Written as a novel in 1953 by William A. Owens, this is one historian's view of the Amistad mutiny. Based on U.S. government documents, court records, official and personal correspondence, diaries, and newspaper accounts, it tells the true story of 53 illegally enslaved Africans who revolted against their captors. After the Amistad was intercepted and seized by the United States Navy, the imprisoned Africans were forced to stand trial for mutiny and murder in a case that reached the Supreme Court. With its impassioned plea for freedom for all people, "Black Mutiny" brilliantly recreates a critical moment in America's racial history more than twenty years before the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. It is a rousing and unforgettable story of oppression, justice, and the precious cost of human dignity.

Genres: Fiction, American History, Historical Fiction, African American

352 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1968

About the author

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably 3.5 stars for me. Interesting historical NOVEL based on the Amistad slave uprising and the legal battle featuring former president John Quincy Adams to have the "cargo" returned to their home in Africa. You can tell this book was written in the 1950s when conservative missionary zeal was more in favor. It's hard to read that the Africans had to wait almost a year after being declared "free" to return to their homeland because the abolitionist Christians wanted to make sure their "paganism" had been replaced with Christian teaching. Once home, Cinque reverts to his native ways and actually wars with other tribes to gain power, ironically becoming a slaver himself. What is a reader to make of all this? Perhaps the old verities are the ones that stand the test of time: human nature is full of contradictions and we are all, in the end, only human.

[Tom Darrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book a few years back and just now got around to reading it. I've seen the movie Amistad several times and I thought that this would be one of those situations where the book is better than the movie (which it often is) but it was not the case. The book was originally published in the 1950s, and it is clear that historical fiction has come a long way since then. The characters are very flat and one dimensional and it's hard to tell who is who. The author bases most of the story on historical records (so his attempt to be accurate is, in a way, commendable), but it ends up hurting the flow of the story.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rough reminder of where society was not all that long ago. Certainly not a feel-good story, but it does have the gleaming hope of some truly righteous individuals fighting for the well-being of humanity.

The novelization of history does well in the first half where most of the action of the story takes place. It falls off a bit in the middle where things become a bit tedious with court preceding and names of characters that come and go. The ending is satisfying and builds in a way that makes it feel like a proper and complete climax of the story.

I recommend this to anyone who is interested pre-cival war American history and the abolitionist movement during that period. It is enjoyable as a study of civil rights as well as a mild dramatization of several major actors at the time.

[Fareeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very well written. The "justice" system the Mendis experienced then, is not much different than it is today, for black folks. I found it interesting that even in spite of being freed, they weren't immediately free, as they had a purpose for the white missionaries (to rid of their pagan ways and spread the gospel of Christ). The struggle for power between the freed men, black and white, was tough to read. Since the blacks were freed, they should not have been subjected to almost another yr in a Foreign land. But again, they were needed to serve the purpose of whites and were never really freed.

[Sergio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una vicenda dolorosa in un'America ancora prigioniera dello schiavismo e responsabile della tratta dei negri dai loro villaggi africani. Peccato che il racconto sia troppo lento e manchi della giusta quantità di pathos

[Lamar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and educational. The book provided great detail about some of the challenges that we unfortunately face today.

[Jordan W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very brief thoughts: Interesting and factually interesting account, but it was very clearly written with Missionary interests in mind. Though at least somewhat sympathetic to Cinque + co, the protagonists of Owens' story are revealed to be the white missionary-abolitionists as they attempt to "save" the "pagan, Savage, demonic Negroes" from blackness . The White Savior narrative of a particularly Missionary imperialist bent is interesting from a critical standpoint, but shows a narrowness of worldview on account of the author.

[Jim Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

True story about 53 slaves on the schooner "Amistad". I had trouble reading this because it was one of those books that, while accurately informative, I couldn't get through the parts that were "facts" as smoothly as I could the "action" parts. For me it was an extremely slow read. But the book overall was interesting and heart wrenching as I read what those men had to go through. I would highly recommend it to history buffs!

[HeavyReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book around the time the movie Amistad came out. I don't remeber much about the book. I thought is was enlightening when I read it.

[Conrad]

great book.