Descriptions, Reviews, etc.
Description:
Drawing from authentic accounts of African Americans, this collection of true vignettes and traditional verse spans the period from the early days of slavery to the Emancipation Proclamation.
Review Quotes: An excellent account of the many ways in which slaves participated in bringing down the greatest evil in our nation's history.
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Taken together, the text and illustrations make a powerful statement about the horrors of this institution, its traumatic effect on those who endured it, and the remarkable ability of the human spirit to face such adversity with courage and defiance.
-School Library Journal (starred review)
The research is documented, and younger readers can start with the experiences of ordinary people and then go on to the fuller histories listed in the bibliography. Evans' large, dramatic oil paintings show both the suffering and the protest, as in one unforgettable close-up of a captured runaway in irons, his eyes closed, his head unbowed.
-Booklist
Weaving together first-person accounts by familiar historical figures, traditional black spirituals and vignettes featuring fictional composites of actual people, Rappaport creates an affecting, multitextured chronicle of slavery in America . . . The symbolic and realistic converge effectively in Evans's often emotionally charged oil paintings, which capture both the pain and the triumph at the heart of this trenchant compilation.
-Publishers Weekly
Rappaport's minimal text links many such eloquent examples of unquenchable resistance, both overt and concealed . . . Equally eloquent are Evans's powerful paintings. Many of his figures are heroic in scale, their eyes gleaming with intelligence and determination . . . This is a handsome and inspiring book.
-The Horn Book
