Jump Ship to Freedom (Arabus Family Saga) (Arabus Family Saga (Paperback))

by James Lincoln Collier

Paperback, 1987

Status

Available

Call number

813.0835

Series

The Arabus Family Saga (2)

Genres

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Yearling (1987), 208 pages

Description

In 1787 a fourteen-year-old slave, anxious to buy freedom for himself and his mother, escapes from his dishonest master and tries to find help in cashing the solidier's notes received by his father for fighting in the Revolution.

Media reviews

New York Times Book Review

JUMP SHIP TO FREEDOM By James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier. 198 pp. New York: Delacorte Press. (Ages 11 to 15) By CYNTHIA KING Daniel Arabus is a 14-year-old runaway slave from Stratford, Conn., who overhears certain arguments that preceded the North-South compromise on slavery. How he

ends up carrying the crucial message to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, while posters are being circulated for his capture, is the story the Collier brothers tell.

February 14, 1982.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member Omrythea

Daniel Arabus and his mother are slaves. His father served in the Revolutionary War and earned notes that could buy his family’s freedom. However, Daniel’s father died and the slave owners stole the notes, so Daniel attempts to find a way to gain freedom.

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LibraryThing member kthomp25

Evidently, it was a common practice in the Revoultionary War for men who could afford it to pay someone to fight in their place. In this story, Daniel's father was a slave who was sent to fight in his master's stead in exchange for his freedom. When he returns, his master renigs on the

agreement.

The interesting thing about this book was the thread running through it about peoples perceptions about the moral capabilities of blacks, both from its main character, Daniel Arabus, and from whites.

"It's generally said that Africans don't have a true moral sens, the same as whites do."

"Sir, I've been looking at the whole thing pretty hard the past litle while, and it seems to me that there ain't much difference one way or another. You take my daddy, and Big Tom, and Mr. Ivers and Birdswy and me, and take the skin oof of us, and it would ber pretty hard to tell which was the white ones and which ones wasn't."

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