Rough Crossings By Simon Schama

Boyd Tonkin
Thursday 04 May 2006 19:00 EDT
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As revolution brewed in America, many thousands of slaves acted on British offers of freedom to desert, and fight, their rebel masters. Schama follows these "black loyalists" with a thrilling grasp of high drama and fine detail. He yokes their troubling fate to the wider anti-slavery movement and traces the heroic journey many made first to Canada, then Sierra Leone. A myth-puncturing view of the birth of the US - and a showcase for Schama's narrative gifts at their bewitching best.

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