Anonymous
Posted February 2, 2008
I must admit a bias against nonfiction reference books in general. In my opinion, they tend to be overpriced for the value of the material inside. Having prefaced my review with that, I must declare a resounding exception. Replete with photos and illustrations taken from the period, this book provides a heartwrenching, but powerful, firsthand account of slavery and its effects on slaves from the slaves themselves, abolitionists, and even our country¿s founding fathers. I found myself transfixed by the message, in spite of the moralizing that was done in the Introduction. The book looks at the aspects of slavery from the journey to America to everyday domestic life to religion. I read a few excerpts to my Forensics class to demonstrate the use of language to move audiences, and they sat in awed silence. This series has everything one would expect from an excellently done nonfiction book: discussion questions, a timeline, a glossary, further readings, web sites citing the location of several source documents, as well as an index. If the other books are as excellent as this one, it is a series that no U. S. History teacher would want to be without. This would also be a great resource for English teachers who use excerpts to encourage journaling.
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