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Searching... Dallas Public Library | + 973.7115 F84 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Independence Public Library | J 973.7115 FRADIN 2000 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | J 973.7 FRADIN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | J 973.7115 Fradin 2000 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
The stories of slaves who fled the South in search of freedom are some of the most riveting in American history. The fugitives usually left at night, with little or no food or money and only the light of the North Star to guide them. Gathered here are twelve stirring stories of escape, including those of Henry "Box" Brown, Ellen and William Craft, and Harriet Tubman, along with less well known but equally compelling accounts of Mary Prince, Eliza Harris, Margaret Garner, John Anderson, Solomon Northrup, and others. Accompanied by striking archival prints and photographs, these thought-provoking narratives vividly depict the horrors of slavery and the high value of freedom, and are a testimony to the tenacity of the human spirit. Bibliography, index.
Author Notes
Dennis Brindell Fradin is the author of many books for young readers, including the well-received SAMUEL ADAMS: THE FATHER OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE and, with coauthor and wife Judith Bloom Fradin, IDA B. WELLS: MOTHER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5 Up-Fradin offers 12 fascinating accounts of runaway slaves who successfully escaped to the North, in some cases only after several failed attempts and recaptures, and all based on primary sources. Each chapter focuses on one person or pair of individuals and varies in length from 8 to 27 pages, accompanied by informative, black-and-white reproductions of paintings, drawings, woodcuts, newspaper ads, quilt blocks, and a few rare photos. Some of these fugitives are well-known: Harriet Tubman; Eliza Harris, whose journey across the ice with her child was immortalized in Uncle Tom's Cabin; and Margaret Garner, the inspiration for Toni Morrison's Beloved. Virginia Hamilton's Many Thousand Gone (Knopf, 1993) offers briefer accounts of some of the same subjects Fradin has included. An introductory author's note that gives a brief history of slavery; an afterword entitled "Slavery Is Still with Us," which gives addresses for contacting the United Nations to join the struggle against this modern-day violation of human rights; and a bibliography of both books and Web sites all help to make this an excellent, readable historical resource.- Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Adhering closely to the facts, often using primary source quotes, Fradin (Ida B. Wells) delivers 12 riveting accounts of daring escapes from slavery. Fradin illustrates a broad spectrum of flights, beginning with two accountsDfrom Mary Prince and from Fed (later known as John Brown)Dwho escaped to Britain, thus conveying to readers that England banned slavery prior to the U.S. and demonstrating how Prince acted as a catalyst in the British antislavery movement. Though some readers may be familiar with the escape attempts of Eliza Harris (the model for Uncle Tom's Cabin) and Margaret Garner (the inspiration for Toni Morrison's Beloved), Fradin discusses the two women and their children in the same chapter and highlights their vastly different fates. He also includes 15-year-old Ann Maria Weems, one of the few children to attempt escape alone, and Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The narrative focuses on the emotional realities and risks, enabling readers to feel the claustrophobia of Henry "Box" Brown's 26-hour escape from Richmond to Philadelphia inside a cramped box and carted by train as a shipment of shoes. The heroism of both black and white Underground Railroad operators shines through, especially in the memorable Oberlin-Wellington rescue in which the abolitionist town defied slave catchers and the Federal Fugitive Slave Law to save a runaway, and two chapters in which Levi ("nicknamed the President of the underground Railroad") and Katie Coffin figure prominently. Archival photographs and illustrations contribute to the historical accuracy of the stories but the design, unfortunately, looks institutional. Luckily, the attractive cover, a photograph of a square from the Underground Railroad Quilt made by Oberlin residents, will lure readers to the volume. Fradin makes liberal reference to the freed African-Americans' own accounts and will likely send many readers on to further volumes. Ages 11-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) Fradin assembles more than a dozen compelling narratives of slaves' flight to freedom, often taken from contemporary first-person accounts: Eliza Harris, who fled with her child over the partially frozen Ohio river, jumping from one ice floe to another; Henry ""Box"" Brown, who mailed himself to Philadelphia and endured a staggering twenty-six hour journey in a three-by-two-by-two-and-a-half-foot box; Ellen and William Craft, who disguised themselves as a white male planter (Ellen) and his slave (William) and brazened out a thousand-mile train trip from Georgia to Pennsylvania; and heroic Harriet Tubman. Beginning with the subjects' lives under slavery, the combined narratives present a portrait of pervasive inhumane practices in the South and the network that arose in the North to assist the escaping slaves. Fradin's tone throughout is sympathetic but restrained, often incorporating quotes that allow the fugitives to tell their stories in their own words. The narratives are illustrated with archival black-and-white photographs and engravings depicting conditions under slavery and, where available, pictures of the fugitives and scenes from their escape taken from contemporary publications. Although documentation for both text and pictures is scanted, the volume concludes with a bibliography and index, and an afterword gives two UN addresses readers can contact for information on the ongoing fight against modern-day slavery. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Slavery, the peculiar institution, was practiced throughout the New World, but Fradin concentrates on the slaves who escaped, and provides, as much as possible, biographies of those who had the courage to face the awful consequences should they have been returned to slavery. By the same token, he makes very clear the inhumanity and destructive capabilities of those who owned other humanspeople separated from their bond masters by color and the fact that they were mere merchandise. They were first sold by African tribal people of the same color to Europeans of different skin color and religion. The narratives are based on the stories of 16 people who dared to escape from bondage previous to the Underground Railroad as well as during its existence. Illustrated with period prints, the biographies are moving, touchingand devastating, even as the life of a slave was devastating to his or her humanity. Julius Lesters To Be a Slave would be a fine companion to Fradins work. Scholarly paraphernalia includes Web sites, bibliography, and index, but the author provides neither footnotes nor backnotes to the narratives and his brief introductory discussions. Dates within, or introductory, to the narratives would have been helpful as would have commentary on the period illustrations (e.g., cuts of Eliza from Uncle Toms Cabin, crossing the ice showing her as a Caucasian, might have been helpful to the less-informed). Other than this lack of notes or commentary, this personal and affecting account would be a model. Even so, it is moving and enlightening. (Nonfiction. 11+)
Booklist Review
Gr. 8^-up. Like Virginia Hamilton's landmark Many Thousand Gone (1993) and individual accounts of Harriet Tubman and other rescuers on the Underground Railroad, this collective biography is an inspiring history of those who escaped slavery and their rescuers. It is also a horrifying, detailed account of what the people escaped. Fradin's biography Ida B. Wells (a Booklist Editors' Choice 2000 title) describes with brutal realism the lynching practices Wells fought against. In the same way, Fradin here draws on more than 16 slaves' personal experiences to show what slavery was like: the unrelenting racism; the physical brutality, including rape and flogging; the anguish of family separation. The accounts of reunions, often after years apart, are almost unbearable to read. The escapes and rescues show incredible courage, sacrifice, luck, and determination, but Fradin is clear that many slaves didn't make it, including Margaret Garner (the inspiration for Toni Morrison's 1987 novel Beloved), who slit her baby's throat so that her child would not be a slave. In contrast, there are amazing successful-rescue accounts, including those of Harriet Tubman, Levi Coffin, and William Still. Individuals who escaped often told their stories, some of which Fradin says were written down. He doesn't document his own sources and how he used them, except for a bibliography at the back, but he does point out what's fact and what's surmise. The book design is beautiful, with thick paper, clear type, and small archival photos and period sketches throughout. The narrative is direct, with no rhetoric or cover-up. Like Holocaust narratives, this is painful reading about legal racist cruelty and those who resisted it. --Hazel Rochman