[The] past is not always a dusty place with mold growing in the corners, a fact born out by "Jump Ship to Freedom," a fast-paced narrative about a black slave in 1787.

Daniel Arabus is the slave, a bright but somewhat cowed teenager owned by Captain Ivers of Stratford, Conn. Daniel has been told that feeling lowly and stupid is an inherent condition in "negroes," but his natural intelligence says otherwise. Through his eyes the Colliers have subtly documented the ironic idiocy of regarding men and women as property when they are so demonstrably human beings. Daniel's one source of pride is the memory of his recently drowned father. Jack Arabus had fought bravely in the Revolution, serving in his master's place in exchange for his freedom. When Captain Ivers tried to renege on this promise, Jack sued him and won. The facts of the actual case are the...