The Amistad story (“Sailing to Africa on the Amistad,” July/August) is another provocative window into the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. Though it is commonly known that many freed slaves arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, via Nova Scotia, less is known about what happened to them after their arrival on African shores.

This migration produced an entirely new diaspora throughout West Africa including many of the Aku people currently living around the mouth of the River Gambia. For a fictional but historically accurate and fascinating account of one slave’s journey, Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes is highly recommended.

Lester Jones
Halifax