Griffin, a historical anthropologist, has reproduced the autobiography of Sitiki, an African boy kidnapped and sold into slavery, first in Africa and then America, arriving in the South in about 1807. In the 1870s, with the help of his former master, he wrote his memoirs. He began with his earliest recollections of his family and the day they were taken. The story is told in a sharp, factual style with little emotion but it is still powerful. Griffin uses the memoir as a template to create a more nuanced depiction of the conditions and the times in which Sitiki (later named Jack) lived. Together they form an invaluable picture of a world long vanished, including Sitiki's impressions of Spanish Florida. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)