Ancestors

“A moving account of a Black British family that travels through the ages from slavery and beyond” BONNIE GREER

It is the late eighteenth century. Abroad a slave ship bound from West Africa to Jamaica, a terrified young boy is cared for by Ami, a fellow captive, who becomes his surrogate mother during that nightmare voyage. They are sold to separate owners, but their lives remain curiously intertwined, and the boy, now a man named August, marries Ami’s daughter, Sarah.

Ancestors tells the story of their lives, their part in the struggle for emancipation, and the hope and faith that sustains them, and is inspired by Paul Crooks’ unprecedented success tracing his family history from London, back six generations, to ancestors captured off the West African coast and enslaved on a sugar plantation in Jamaica.