by Howard Jones; Oxford University Press; 271 pages; $22.95.
That the story of the slave ship Amistad has been told more than once, both as fact and in fiction, is not surprising, because it is the only instance in American history in which blacks, captured in Africa to be sold into slavery, managed to fight back, win, and eventually get back home. The story is dramatic and complex, involving a handsome, forceful young black leader named Cinque, diplomatic and legal squabbling, the mounting emotional fury between abolitionists and Southern slave owners, and a former as well as the incumbent President of the United States.