Slavery, Narratives
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER - A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Esquire, Marie Claire, Electric Lit, Ms. magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States. The New York Times Magazine's award-winning "1619 Project" issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation's founding and construction--and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life. Featuring contributions from: Leslie Alexander - Michelle Alexander - Carol Anderson - Joshua Bennett - Reginald Dwayne Betts - Jamelle Bouie - Anthea Butler - Matthew Desmond - Rita Dove - Camille T. Dungy - Cornelius Eady - Eve L. Ewing - Nikky Finney - Vievee Francis - Yaa Gyasi - Forrest Hamer - Terrance Hayes - Kimberly Annece Henderson - Jeneen Interlandi - Honorée Fanonne Jeffers - Barry Jenkins - Tyehimba Jess - Martha S. Jones - Robert Jones, Jr. - A. Van Jordan - Ibram X. Kendi - Eddie Kendricks - Yusef Komunyakaa - Kevin M. Kruse - Kiese Laymon - Trymaine Lee - Jasmine Mans - Terry McMillan - Tiya Miles - Wesley Morris - Khalil Gibran Muhammad - Lynn Nottage - ZZ Packer - Gregory Pardlo - Darryl Pinckney - Claudia Rankine - Jason Reynolds - Dorothy Roberts - Sonia Sanchez - Tim Seibles - Evie Shockley - Clint Smith - Danez Smith - Patricia Smith - Tracy K. Smith - Bryan Stevenson - Nafissa Thompson-Spires - Natasha Trethewey - Linda Villarosa - Jesmyn Ward
Christopher Award-winning author Jerdine Nolen imagines a young woman's journey from slavery to freedom in this intimate and powerful novel that was named an ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults nominee. It is 1854 in Alexandria, Virginia. Eliza's mother has been sold away and Eliza is left as a slave on a Virginia farm. It is Abbey, the cook, who looks after Eliza, when she isn't taking care of the Mistress. Eliza has only the quilt her mother left her and the stories her mother told to keep her mother's memory close. When the Mistress's health begins to fail and Eliza overhears the Master talk of the Slave sale auction and of Eliza being traded, she takes to the night. She follows the path and the words of the farmhand Old Joe: "Travel the night. Sleep the day...Go east. Keep your back to the setting of the sun. Come to the safe house with a candlelight in the window...That gal, Harriet, she'll take you." All the while, Eliza recites the stories her mother taught her as she travels along her freedom road from Mary's Land to Pennsylvania to Freedom's Gate in St. Catharines, Canada, where she finds not only her freedom but also more than she could have hoped for.
Published on the anniversary of when President Abraham Lincoln's order went into effect, this book offers readers a unique look at the events that led to the Emancipation Proclamation. Filled with little-known facts and fascinating details, it includes excerpts from historical sources, archival images, and new research that debunks myths about the Emancipation Proclamation and its causes. Complete with a timeline, glossary, and bibliography, Emancipation Proclamation is an engrossing new historical resource from award-winning children's book author Tonya Bolden. Praise for Emancipation Proclamation:
FOUR STARRED REVIEWS
"A convincing, handsomely produced argument..."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Bolden makes excellent use of primary sources; the pages are filled with archival photos, engravings, letters, posters, maps, newspaper articles, and other period documents. Detailed captions and a glossary interpret them for today's readers."
--School Library Journal, starred review "The language soars, powerfully communicating not just the facts about the Emancipation Proclamation but its meaning for those who cared most passionately."
--Booklist, starred review "Bolden tackles these questions in a richly illustrated overview of the lead-up to the Proclamation, organizing and reiterating information already familiar to many middle-schoolers, while introducing material that will probably be eye-opening to students who have taken their textbook's version of history at face value."
--The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review Award
School Library Journal Best Book of 2013
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbons List 2013
Notable Children's Books from ALSC 2014
2014 Carter G.Woodson Middle Level Book Award
FOUR STARRED REVIEWS
"A convincing, handsomely produced argument..."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Bolden makes excellent use of primary sources; the pages are filled with archival photos, engravings, letters, posters, maps, newspaper articles, and other period documents. Detailed captions and a glossary interpret them for today's readers."
--School Library Journal, starred review "The language soars, powerfully communicating not just the facts about the Emancipation Proclamation but its meaning for those who cared most passionately."
--Booklist, starred review "Bolden tackles these questions in a richly illustrated overview of the lead-up to the Proclamation, organizing and reiterating information already familiar to many middle-schoolers, while introducing material that will probably be eye-opening to students who have taken their textbook's version of history at face value."
--The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review Award
School Library Journal Best Book of 2013
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbons List 2013
Notable Children's Books from ALSC 2014
2014 Carter G.Woodson Middle Level Book Award
Unlike any other book on the market today, this richly illustrated companion volume uses the remarkable artifacts, images, and documents of the United States National Slavery Museum to trace the entire history of slavery in North America, from the societies of ancient Africa to the repercussions still faced by Americans today--and to celebrate the perseverance and ultimate triumph of a people. Freedom in My Heart goes beyond the textbooks to call forth the unique voices, personal stories, and cultural contributions of slaves and their descendants, demonstrating how enslaved African Americans remained free at heart to develop a vibrant culture in the face of unspeakable inhumanity. Following a foreword by L. Douglas Wilder, the grandson of former slaves and the first African-American elected governor of a U.S. state, ten compelling chapters offer the often unheard testimony of those who witnessed slavery and those whose ancestors endured it. Their voices blend with the contributions of such luminaries as South African leader Nelson Mandela, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, noted journalist Juan Williams, entertainers Bill Cosby and Ben Vereen, and many more. This partnership with the National Slavery Museum grants exclusive access to never-before-seen images, personal letters, and artifacts, which shed new light on slavery and the activities surrounding it. As the museum nears its opening, numerous press events and online features will publicize the book, giving unprecedented exposure at a time of great anticipation and interest.
In the midst of the Great Depression, the Federal Writer's Project assigned field workers to interview ex-slaves. More than 2,000 former slaves contributed their personal accounts and opinions, and their oral histories were deposited in the Library of Congress.
The former slaves describe the clothes they wore, the food they ate, the houses they lived in, the type of work they did, and the treatment they received. They tell their impressions of Yankee soldiers, the Klan, their masters, and their new-found freedom.
Because the interviews were conducted during the Great Depression, some of the narratives provide insights that are at times surprising. These interviews have preserved a valuable source of information about the institution of slavery in the United States and the effect it had on the people involved.
"One day Grandpappy sassed Miss Polly White, and she told him that if he didn't behave hisself that she would put him in her pocket. Grandpappy was a big man, and I ask him how Miss Polly could do that. He said she meant that she would sell him, then put the money in her pocket. He never did sass Miss Polly no more."--Sarah Debro
These eloquent words come from former slaves themselves--an important but long-neglected source of information about the institution of slavery in the United States. Who could better describe what slavery was like than the people who experienced it? And describe it they did, in thousands of remarkable interviews sponsored by the Federal Writers Project during the 1930's
Over 2,000 slave narratives that are now housed in the Library of Congress. More than 170 interviews were conducted in North Carolina. Belinda Hurmence pored over each of the North Carolina narratives, compiling and editing 21 of the first-person accounts for this collection.
These narratives, though artless in many ways, speak compellingly of the joys and sorrows, the hopes and dreams, of the countless people who endured human bondage in the land of the free.
When Sheldon Russell Curtis told this story to his daughter, Rosa, she kept every word in her heart and was to retell it many times.
I will tell it in Sheldon's own words as nearly as I can. He was wounded in a fierce battle and left for dead in a pasture somewhere in Georgia when Pinkus found him. Pinkus' skin was the color of polished mahogany, and he was flying Union colors like the wounded boy, and he picked him up out of the field and brought him to where the black soldier's mother, Moe Moe Bay, lived. She had soft, gentle hands and cared for him and her Pink. But the two boys were putting her in danger, two Union soldiers in Confederate territory! They had to get back to their outfits. Scared and uncertain, the boys were faced with a hard decision, and then marauding Confederate troops rode in. In this Civil War story passed from great-grandfather to grandmother, to son, and finally to the author-artist herself, Patricia Polacco once again celebrates the shared humanity of the peoples of this world.
I will tell it in Sheldon's own words as nearly as I can. He was wounded in a fierce battle and left for dead in a pasture somewhere in Georgia when Pinkus found him. Pinkus' skin was the color of polished mahogany, and he was flying Union colors like the wounded boy, and he picked him up out of the field and brought him to where the black soldier's mother, Moe Moe Bay, lived. She had soft, gentle hands and cared for him and her Pink. But the two boys were putting her in danger, two Union soldiers in Confederate territory! They had to get back to their outfits. Scared and uncertain, the boys were faced with a hard decision, and then marauding Confederate troops rode in. In this Civil War story passed from great-grandfather to grandmother, to son, and finally to the author-artist herself, Patricia Polacco once again celebrates the shared humanity of the peoples of this world.
Taut free verse tells the little-known story of the first contraband camp of the Civil War--seen by some historians as the "beginning of the end of slavery in America." One night in 1861, three escaped slaves made their way from the Confederate line to a Union-held fort. The runaways were declared "contraband of war" and granted protection. As word spread, thousands of runaway slaves poured into the fort, seeking their freedom. These "contrabands" made a home for themselves, building the first African American community in the country. In 1863, they bore witness to one of the first readings of the Emancipation Proclamation in the South--beneath the sheltering branches of the tree now known as Emancipation Oak.