Slavery

Introduction	Lincoln's Public Life	Assassination
Slavery	Lincoln's Private Life	Money Smart Program
Emancipation	Civil War	Extended Bibliography
Friends & Enemies	Illinois and the Civil War	Sponsors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lincoln rose to power on the promise that he would end slavery. Before that day came, those who lived in bondage sought to live their lives with dignity and find their way to freedom, while others of all races fought for abolition even when it put their own lives in peril. These titles tell the stories of heartbreak, courage, ingenuity and endurance in the face of great evil.

TITLES

Uncommon Valor: A Story of Race, Patriotism, and Glory in the Final Battles of the Civil War by Melvin Claxton and Mark Puls
The story of Christian Fleetwood, who put aside his dreams of a new life in Liberia to join the Union army, where he faced prejudice and fear in order to serve his country in the fight for freedom.

Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life by Beverly Lowry
A compelling “imagined biography” of Harriet Tubman, this book tells her story as she might have told it.

In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South by John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger
The remarkable Thomas-Rapier family lived on the border between slavery and freedom. From this uncommon vantage point they witnessed many of the historical events of their time.

Speak Out in Thunder Tones: Letters and Other Writings by Black Northerners, 1787-1865 edited by Dorothy Sterling
The words of African Americans—some famous and some not—flow from these pages and provide rich insights into their lives and thoughts before and during the Civil War.

Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad by Betty DeRamus
Love bloomed, even on the Underground Railroad. Thrilling and touching, this book tells the stories of couples who faced enormous odds and risked everything to be together.

Hidden in Plain View: The Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad by Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard.
A chance encounter with an aging South Carolina craftswoman led authors Tobin and Dobard to the discovery of a secret quilt-block code that may have been used to guide escaping slaves.

Where I’m Bound by Allen B. Ballard
As a scout for the Union army escaped slave Joe Duckett proves his worth time and again, but with the war ending he must return to his former home and face an old enemy to rescue his wife and children.

Lincoln on Race and Slavery edited and introduced by Henry Louis Gates Jr.; coedited by Donald Yacovone
Was freeing the slaves always Lincoln’s goal? Noted scholar Gates investigates Lincoln’s words—written in private or spoken in public—and considers the complex motivations that led to the Emancipation Proclamation.

*Love Cemetery: Unburying the Secret History of Slaves by China Galland
Author Galland’s attempt to restore a slave cemetery in Texas stirs up racial tensions before ultimately leading her community to reconciliation.

*Light, entertaining books for both adult and teen readers.