An informative, engaging chronicle of organized and individual acts of resistance to slavery.
A dramatic, revealing chronicle of enslaved people resisting their oppressors through acts of defiance, escape, sabotage, organized rebellion and vengeful murder.
This entry in the A Peculiar History series opens dramatically with a description of the German Coast Uprising, a violent, widespread rebellion in French Louisiana in 1811, and proceeds with a mostly chronological account of acts of resistance and rebellion from the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade in the early 15th century. Subjects briefly touched upon include a 1712 New York City rebellion as well as revolts led by Gabriel Prosser, Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey. Aretha discusses the Haitian revolution but curiously fails to mention its leader, Toussaint L’Ouverture. In addition, Aretha covers everyday acts of rebellion by slaves such as burning barns, killing livestock, sabotaging crops, suicide, and infanticide by mothers who wished to keep their children from enslavement. There is good information on the draconian lengths colonies and states went to to discourage slave resistance of any kind. With an attractive design, the text is complemented with photographs, maps and reproductions of archival materials, many in color.
An informative, engaging chronicle of organized and individual acts of resistance to slavery. (timeline, source notes, bibliography, websites, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59935-406-4
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Morgan Reynolds
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
Essential. (Nonfiction. 12-16)
A 50th-anniversary examination of the Mississippi murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner and their aftermath.
An introduction describes the legally entrenched racism of Mississippi and the inception of the Freedom Summer campaign. Following this, Mitchell drops readers right in with the events that led up to the murder of the three young men, evoking the hostility and fear that covered Neshoba County like a blanket. He pulls back to sketch the victims’ biographies in separate chapters, then takes readers through the investigation and the steps toward the 1967 trial that infamously failed to deliver justice. That account alone, illustrated with ample archival photographs and memorabilia, makes riveting reading. He clearly states the legal intricacies and thoroughly incorporates the players’ own voices, with often breathtaking effect: “They killed one nigger, one Jew, and a white man. I gave them all what I thought they deserved,” said the presiding judge later. Mitchell takes the story into the present day, describing how the families of the victims continue to fight for civil rights and how both locals and state officials kept the case alive, simultaneously working toward legal and emotional resolution. He leaves open the question whether now “the killing of a black mother’s son is as important as the killing of a white mother’s son”—but the country is getting closer to that goal. The book includes a map, endnotes, bibliographic essay, bibliography and index.
Essential. (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-47725-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
Richly illustrated, this deserves a place alongside other important depictions of this story.
One of the most decorated nonfiction writers in the field brings his style to a well-told story of the struggle for voting rights in the American South.
Fifty years ago, as the civil rights movement took hold, the attempts to ensure African-American access to the vote increasingly took center stage. A newly passed Civil Rights Act did not guarantee voting rights, so activists in the South continued to press for them at both the state and federal levels. The barriers to voting—poll taxes, literacy tests, limits on registration—were difficult to overcome. Physical abuse and financial intimidation also kept people from the polls. Activist churches were subject to firebombs and burning. Selma, Alabama, became a flashpoint. As Freedman begins his narrative, student activism had propelled teachers and other middle-class blacks to get involved. The death of an unarmed demonstrator drove organizers to plan a march from Selma to the state’s capital, Montgomery—an attempt that resulted in “Bloody Sunday,” one of the single most violent moments of the movement, and served to prod action on the Voting Rights Act in Congress. Freedman’s meticulous research and elegant prose brings freshness to a story that has been told many times. Familiar figures populate the account, but they are joined by many lesser-known figures as well.
Richly illustrated, this deserves a place alongside other important depictions of this story. (timeline, bibliography, photo credits, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2921-9
Page Count: 83
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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