Description:
Celebrating the deep strength and resilience of African American slaves over centuries of miserable oppression, Doreen Rappaport gathers stories, songs, and poetry in this stunning compilation. The quest for freedom and dignity drove many slaves to push themselves beyond what most humans could bear: enduring brutal beatings, watching their families be torn apart, experiencing humiliation at the hands of their white masters. But through it all, women, men, and children resisted in whatever ways they could. In riveting first-person narrative, Rappaport tells the stories of these courageous souls, from Olaudah Equiano's survival through the Middle Passage to Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad. Traditional songs are interspersed throughout, including "Gospel Train" and "Go Down, Moses," and artist Shane W. Evans (Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter) captures the hope and despair of his subjects in rich, evocative oil paintings. Doreen Rappaport is the acclaimed author of many children's books, including Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. (Ages 7 to 11) --Emilie Coulter
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