The Freedom Bird pieces together an extraordinary true story of courage, determination, compassion and hope on a small tropical island.
Originally a Malagasy princess, Miali was kidnapped by her uncle and passed to the slave traders on the coast. Shipped to Mauritius in appalling conditions ─ sold to the cruellest of slave masters ─ she never lost her dignity or calm ─ to the point where her slave masters gave her a new name: Madame Françoise.
But they shouldn’t have dropped their guard: one night. Miali led a hundred slaves to freedom in the mountain forests. From there, they made regular raids on their old masters ─ but, on an island only twenty miles by thirty, they were never caught. Now, two hundred years later, the river from which she drank is named after her …
