The Boys of Freedom Island by David Drake

THE BOYS OF FREEDOM ISLAND: [For 10 to 14 year old readers] During the early 1870’s, recently orphaned brothers, 12 and 13, are pursued by the authorities when the older one escapes from a cruel apprentice master. They make their way south to the coast of North Carolina where they take up the cause of recently freed slaves who they find are being kidnapped and sold in the markets of the Caribbean Islands. They find safety and freedom on a tiny, isolated, uninhabited island in one of the coastal sounds. They are joined by the son of one of the captured men, and the three of them work together to find and free him. There is excitement at every turn as they must elude both the authorities and fight back against the wicked slavers who are bent on “sendin’ thar scrawny hides ta the bottom a the sea”.