Catalog Search Results
Author
Description
Born into slavery, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (ca. 1824-1907) rose to a position of respect as a talented dressmaker and designer to the political elite of Washington, D.C., and a confidante of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. In this unusual memoir, Keckley offers a rare, behind-the-scenes view of the formal and informal networks that African Americans established among themselves, as well as an insider's perspective of the men who made Civil War politics...
Author
Description
"Born a free man in New York State in 1808, Solomon Northup was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841. He spent the next twelve harrowing years of his life as a slave on a Louisiana cotton plantation. During this time he was frequently abused and often afraid for his life. After regaining his freedom in 1853, Northup decided to publish this gripping autobiographical account of his captivity. As an educated man, Northup was able to present an exceptionally...
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 7.9 - AR Pts: 7
Description
This dramatic autobiography of the early life of an American slave was first published in 1845, when its young author had just achieved his freedom. Douglass' eloquence gives a clear indication of the powerful principles that led him to become the first great African-American leader in the United States. The personal account of a fugitive slave's privation and sufferings and his campaigns for Negro emancipation. This dramatic autobiography of the...
Author
Description
In the winter of 1852, a group of Philadelphia abolitionists dedicated to assisting runaway slaves in their flight to freedom formed a new assistance group to be part of the Underground Railroad-the General Vigilance Committee. William Still, himself a son of slaves, was named its secretary and executive director. Deeply moved by the stories of the fugitive slaves he helped conduct northward, Still took his committee record-keeping to a higher level....
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 3.9 - AR Pts: 7
Description
In her dreams, Phoebe twirls through rows of sea island cotton as a white dress blows around her knees like a breeze. As she dances, she loses all memory of being born a slave on an Alabama plantation. She lifts up her feet and flies high above the fields, as light as air. Before her a single white star shines. Thirteen-year-old Phoebe has always dreamed of leaving her life as a slave behind. She has heard whispers about a secret path to freedom,...
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 3.9 - AR Pts: 1
Description
"Arriving in Boston aboard a slave ship in 1761, Phillis Wheatley began what would eventually be a storied life in American. Primary sources bring to life the story of America's first African American female poet. Easy-to-read text highlights how Wheatley learned to speak English and to read and write. She even learned to read Latin. Soon she was writing poetry, but no one in Boston would publish her book because she was a slave. She had to look to...
Author
Description
"In the years just before the Civil War, during the most intensive phase of American slave-trade suppression, the U.S. Navy seized roughly 2,000 enslaved Africans from illegal slave ships and brought them into temporary camps at Key West and Charleston. In this study, Sharla Fett reconstructs the social world of these "recaptives" and recounts the relationships they built to survive the holds of slave ships, American detention camps, and, ultimately,...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 4.5 - AR Pts: 1
Description
"Soon after American colonists had won independence from Great Britain, Ona Judge was fighting for her own freedom from one of America's most famous founding fathers, George Washington. George and Martha Washington valued Ona as one of their most skilled and trustworthy slaves, but she would risk everything to achieve complete freedom. Born into slavery at Mount Vernon, Ona seized the opportunity to escape when she was brought to live in the President's...
19) Wash: a novel
Author
Description
When the pressures of early 1800s westward expansion and debt threaten to destroy everything he's built, a troubled Revolutionary War veteran embarks on an audacious plan involving setting one of his male slaves as his breeding sire.
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.4 - AR Pts: 1
Description
"The Underground Railroad was used by people escaping enslavement in the South. This system of passages and safe houses helped people reach freedom in the Northern United States or Canada. Did you know science played a role in the Underground Railroad? Learn how people used the night sky to find their way north and much more!"--