Chapters 17 and 18 Summary and Analysis

In chapter seventeen, Assata travels a lot over the next few years. She learns much about the Black Liberation Army and its many organizations and collectives of which it was comprised. Many revolutionaries are in prison or forced underground. They want to take the struggle to a higher level but did not know how. They lack many important aspects required for success; they first and most importantly must politically mobilize, educate, and organize the masses of black people. The revolutionary struggle is slow and scientific, and freedom will not be won above ground. It must start building underground structures as soon as possible. They must act in a calculated manner.

In chapter eighteen, Assata is kept in solitary confinement for over a year in the Middlesex County Jail for Men until the New Jersey trial is over. A civil...