Ancestors

Looking back 300 years, this gripping novel is based on the true story of the author's African ancestors. The story opens aboard a late 18th-century slave ship bound from West Africa to Jamaica, where a terrified young boy is cared for by Ami, a fellow captive, who becomes his surrogate mother during their nightmare voyage. They are sold to separate owners upon arrival at the docks in Kingston, but their lives remain intertwined. The boy, who is named August by his new master, grows up and marries Ami's daughter, Sarah, and the story of their livesand their children's livesclimaxes with a dramatic struggle for emancipation during Jamaica's 1883 slave rebellion.

Paul Crooks devoted 11 years to tracing his African family tree after being told by experts that it would be impossible to find historical records. He persevered, locating documents that led from London to Jamaica to Cuba, and ultimately back to the Gold Coast of Africa—an effort that has brought him international recognition for his breakthroughs in African Caribbean genealogy research.