Amos Fortune: Free Man by Elizabeth Yates is the biography of a man born freely in Africa, who was abducted as teenager to be sold as a slave in the new American Colonies. This youth learned to communicate with the people of his new world, learned a deep devotion to the Bible, and became a free man who lived with a kindness and generosity of heart that taught those around him the meaning of compassion. This biography won the Newberry Medal for its contribution to children's literature in 1951, and continues to teach a new generation of readers what it is to be human.

It was springtime in the a small African village off the Gold Coast. The At-mun-shi people were participating in an annual celebration to appease the gods of spring, when a group of slavers interrupted their celebration by killing the king and rounding up...