Martha and the Slave Catchers

Download Martha and the Slave Catchers PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Seven Stories Press
ISBN 13 : 1609808010
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (98 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Martha and the Slave Catchers by : Harriet Hyman Alonso

Download or read book Martha and the Slave Catchers written by Harriet Hyman Alonso and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2017-11-21 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirteen-year-old Martha Bartlett insists on being a part of the Underground Railroad rescue to bring her brother Jake back home to their abolitionist community in Connecticut. It's 1860 and though African-Americans and mixed-race peoples in the north are supposed to be free, seven-year-old Jake, the orphan of a fugitive slave, is kidnapped by his "owner" and taken south to Maryland. Jake is what we'd now describe as on the autism spectrum, and Martha knows just how reassure him when he's anxious or fearful. Using aliases, disguises, and other subterfuges, Martha artfully dodges Will and Tom, the slave catchers, but struggles to rectify her new reality with her parents' admonition to always tell the truth. She must be brave but not reckless, clever but not dishonest. But being perceived sometimes as white, sometimes as black during the perilous journey has thrown her sense of her own identity into turmoil. Alonso combines fiction and historical fact to weave a suspenseful story of courage, hope and self-discovery in the aftermath of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, while illuminating the bravery of abolitionists who fought against slavery.

Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge

Download Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Aladdin
ISBN 13 : 1534416188
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (344 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge by : Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Download or read book Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge written by Erica Armstrong Dunbar and published by Aladdin. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A brilliant work of US history.” —School Library Journal (starred review) “Gripping.” —BCCB (starred review) “Accessible…Necessary.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction, Never Caught is the eye-opening narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington’s runaway slave, who risked everything for a better life—now available as a young reader’s edition! In this incredible narrative, Erica Armstrong Dunbar reveals a fascinating and heartbreaking behind-the-scenes look at the Washingtons when they were the First Family—and an in-depth look at their slave, Ona Judge, who dared to escape from one of the nation’s Founding Fathers. Born into a life of slavery, Ona Judge eventually grew up to be George and Martha Washington’s “favored” dower slave. When she was told that she was going to be given as a wedding gift to Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Ona made the bold and brave decision to flee to the north, where she would be a fugitive. From her childhood, to her time with the Washingtons and living in the slave quarters, to her escape to New Hampshire, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, along with Kathleen Van Cleve, shares an intimate glimpse into the life of a little-known, but powerful figure in history, and her brave journey as she fled the most powerful couple in the country.

Never Caught

Download Never Caught PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1501126431
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (11 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Never Caught by : Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Download or read book Never Caught written by Erica Armstrong Dunbar and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Never Caught is the powerful story about a daring woman of “extraordinary grit” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left behind his beloved Mount Vernon to serve in Philadelphia, the temporary seat of the nation’s capital. In setting up his household he brought along nine slaves, including Ona Judge. As the President grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn’t abide: Pennsylvania law required enslaved people be set free after six months of residency in the state. Rather than comply, Washington decided to circumvent the law. Every six months he sent the slaves back down south just as the clock was about to expire. Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, she was denied freedom. So, when the opportunity presented itself one clear and pleasant spring day in Philadelphia, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England. Yet freedom would not come without its costs. At just twenty-two-years-old, Ona became the subject of an intense manhunt led by George Washington, who used his political and personal contacts to recapture his property. “A crisp and compulsively readable feat of research and storytelling” (USA TODAY), historian and National Book Award finalist Erica Armstrong Dunbar weaves a powerful tale and offers fascinating new scholarship on how one young woman risked everything to gain freedom from the famous founding father and most powerful man in the United States at the time.

Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge

Download Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1534416196
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (344 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge by : Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Download or read book Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge written by Erica Armstrong Dunbar and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A brilliant work of US history.” —School Library Journal (starred review) “Gripping.” —BCCB (starred review) “Accessible…Necessary.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A School Library Journal Best Nonfiction Book of 2019! A National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction, Never Caught is the eye-opening narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington’s runaway slave, who risked everything for a better life—now available as a young reader’s edition! In this incredible narrative, Erica Armstrong Dunbar reveals a fascinating and heartbreaking behind-the-scenes look at the Washingtons when they were the First Family—and an in-depth look at their slave, Ona Judge, who dared to escape from one of the nation’s Founding Fathers. Born into a life of slavery, Ona Judge eventually grew up to be George and Martha Washington’s “favored” dower slave. When she was told that she was going to be given as a wedding gift to Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Ona made the bold and brave decision to flee to the north, where she would be a fugitive. From her childhood, to her time with the Washingtons and living in the slave quarters, to her escape to New Hampshire, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, along with Kathleen Van Cleve, shares an intimate glimpse into the life of a little-known, but powerful figure in history, and her brave journey as she fled the most powerful couple in the country.

The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America

Download The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108489125
Total Pages : 271 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America by : Robert H. Churchill

Download or read book The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America written by Robert H. Churchill and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-02 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new interpretation of the Underground Railroad that places violence at the center of the story.

How the Word Is Passed

Download How the Word Is Passed PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0349701164
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (497 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis How the Word Is Passed by : Clint Smith

Download or read book How the Word Is Passed written by Clint Smith and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR A NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION 'A beautifully readable reminder of how much of our urgent, collective history resounds in places all around us that have been hidden in plain sight.' Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish) Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks - those that are honest about the past and those that are not - which offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping a nation's collective history, and our own. It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation-turned-maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers. A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our most essential stories are hidden in plain view - whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth or entire neighbourhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women and children has been deeply imprinted. How the Word is Passed is a landmark book that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of the United States. Chosen as a book of the year by President Barack Obama, The Economist, Time, the New York Times and more, fans of Brit(ish) and Natives will be utterly captivated. What readers are saying about How the Word is Passed: 'How the Word Is Passed frees history, frees humanity to reckon honestly with the legacy of slavery. We need this book.' Ibram X. Kendi, Number One New York Times bestselling author 'An extraordinary contribution to the way we understand ourselves.' Julian Lucas, New York Times Book Review 'The detail and depth of the storytelling is vivid and visceral, making history present and real.' Hope Wabuke, NPR 'This isn't just a work of history, it's an intimate, active exploration of how we're still constructing and distorting our history." Ron Charles, The Washington Post 'In re-examining neighbourhoods, holidays and quotidian sites, Smith forces us to reconsider what we think we know about American history.' Time 'A history of slavery in this country unlike anything you've read before.' Entertainment Weekly 'A beautifully written, evocative, and timely meditation on the way slavery is commemorated in the United States.' Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

A Lady Has the Floor

Download A Lady Has the Floor PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Astra Publishing House
ISBN 13 : 163592491X
Total Pages : 34 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (359 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Lady Has the Floor by : Kate Hannigan

Download or read book A Lady Has the Floor written by Kate Hannigan and published by Astra Publishing House. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written in the same vein as the recent best-selling titles I DISSENT and SHE PERSISTED, here is a nonfiction picture book biography of Belva Lockwood, a lawyer, activist and presidential candidate who devoted her life to overcoming obstacles and demanding equality for women. Activist Belva Lockwood never stopped asking herself the question Are women not worth the same as men? She had big dreams and didn't let anyone stand in her way--not her father, her law school, or even the U.S. Supreme Court. She fought for equality for women in the classroom, in the courtroom, and in politics. In her quest for fairness and parity, Lockwood ran for President of the United States, becoming the first woman on the ballot. In this riveting nonfiction picture book biography, award-winning author Kate Hannigan and celebrated artist Alison Jay illuminate the life of Lockwood, a woman who was never afraid to take the floor and speak her mind.

Stealing Freedom

Download Stealing Freedom PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yearling
ISBN 13 : 0307560198
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (75 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Stealing Freedom by : Elisa Carbone

Download or read book Stealing Freedom written by Elisa Carbone and published by Yearling. This book was released on 2008-12-30 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twelve-year-old Ann Maria Weems works from sunup to sundown, wraps rags around her feet in the winter, and must do whatever her master or mistress orders--but she has something that many plantation slaves don't have. She has her wonderful family around her. To Ann, her teasing brothers, her older sister, and her protective and loving parents are everything. And then one day, they are gone. Separated from her family by her master and shipped off as a housemaid, Ann learns something about independence and about love before the opportunity for escape arrives. A white man risks his life for Ann, cuts her hair short, dresses her like a boy, and launches her on her journey on the Underground Railroad to Canada, her family, and finally to freedom. Until she was a teenager, Ann Maria Weems lived in the mid-1800s near the author's home in Maryland. This fictionalized account of her extraordinary life is ideal for students, teachers, and parents hungry for interesting and informative reading in African-American history and the Underground Railroad.

They Were Her Property

Download They Were Her Property PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300245106
Total Pages : 443 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis They Were Her Property by : Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers

Download or read book They Were Her Property written by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History: a bold and searing investigation into the role of white women in the American slave economy “Stunning.”—Rebecca Onion, Slate “Makes a vital contribution to our understanding of our past and present.”—Parul Sehgal, New York Times “Bracingly revisionist. . . . [A] startling corrective.”—Nicholas Guyatt, New York Review of Books Bridging women’s history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery. Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave‑owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South’s slave market. Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave‑owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave‑owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America.

She Came to Slay

Download She Came to Slay PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : 37 Ink
ISBN 13 : 1982139595
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (821 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis She Came to Slay by : Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Download or read book She Came to Slay written by Erica Armstrong Dunbar and published by 37 Ink. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the bestselling tradition of The Notorious RBG comes a lively, informative, and illustrated tribute to one of the most exceptional women in American history—Harriet Tubman—a heroine whose fearlessness and activism still resonates today. Harriet Tubman is best known as one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad. As a leading abolitionist, her bravery and selflessness has inspired generations in the continuing struggle for civil rights. Now, National Book Award nominee Erica Armstrong Dunbar presents a fresh take on this American icon blending traditional biography, illustrations, photos, and engaging sidebars that illuminate the life of Tubman as never before. Not only did Tubman help liberate hundreds of slaves, she was the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the Civil War, worked as a spy for the Union Army, was a fierce suffragist, and was an advocate for the aged. She Came to Slay reveals the many complexities and varied accomplishments of one of our nation’s true heroes and offers an accessible and modern interpretation of Tubman’s life that is both informative and engaging. Filled with rare outtakes of commentary, an expansive timeline of Tubman’s life, photos (both new and those in public domain), commissioned illustrations, and sections including “Harriet By the Numbers” (number of times she went back down south, approximately how many people she rescued, the bounty on her head) and “Harriet’s Homies” (those who supported her over the years), She Came to Slay is a stunning and powerful mix of pop culture and scholarship and proves that Harriet Tubman is well deserving of her permanent place in our nation’s history.

Life on the Underground Railroad

Download Life on the Underground Railroad PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Capstone Classroom
ISBN 13 : 9781588104182
Total Pages : 36 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (41 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Life on the Underground Railroad by : Sally Senzell Isaacs

Download or read book Life on the Underground Railroad written by Sally Senzell Isaacs and published by Capstone Classroom. This book was released on 2001-07-01 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes what it was like for slaves escaping to freedom, how slaves received help from people on the way, and how they found out about the trails to the North.

Crossing Bok Chitto

Download Crossing Bok Chitto PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0938317776
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (383 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Crossing Bok Chitto by : Tim Tingle

Download or read book Crossing Bok Chitto written by Tim Tingle and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1800s, a Choctaw girl becomes friends with a slave boy from a plantation across the great river, and when she learns that his family is in trouble, she helps them cross to freedom.

A Fragile Freedom

Download A Fragile Freedom PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300145063
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Fragile Freedom by : Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Download or read book A Fragile Freedom written by Erica Armstrong Dunbar and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicling the lives of African American women in the urban north of America (particularly Philadelphia) during the early years of the republic, 'A Fragile Freedom' investigates how they journeyed from enslavement to the precarious state of 'free persons' in the decades before the Civil War.

Generations of Captivity

Download Generations of Captivity PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674020832
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (28 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Generations of Captivity by : Ira Berlin

Download or read book Generations of Captivity written by Ira Berlin and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2004-09-30 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ira Berlin traces the history of African-American slavery in the United States from its beginnings in the seventeenth century to its fiery demise nearly three hundred years later. Most Americans, black and white, have a singular vision of slavery, one fixed in the mid-nineteenth century when most American slaves grew cotton, resided in the deep South, and subscribed to Christianity. Here, however, Berlin offers a dynamic vision, a major reinterpretation in which slaves and their owners continually renegotiated the terms of captivity. Slavery was thus made and remade by successive generations of Africans and African Americans who lived through settlement and adaptation, plantation life, economic transformations, revolution, forced migration, war, and ultimately, emancipation. Berlin's understanding of the processes that continually transformed the lives of slaves makes Generations of Captivity essential reading for anyone interested in the evolution of antebellum America. Connecting the Charter Generation to the development of Atlantic society in the seventeenth century, the Plantation Generation to the reconstruction of colonial society in the eighteenth century, the Revolutionary Generation to the Age of Revolutions, and the Migration Generation to American expansionism in the nineteenth century, Berlin integrates the history of slavery into the larger story of American life. He demonstrates how enslaved black people, by adapting to changing circumstances, prepared for the moment when they could seize liberty and declare themselves the Freedom Generation. This epic story, told by a master historian, provides a rich understanding of the experience of African-American slaves, an experience that continues to mobilize American thought and passions today.

Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World

Download Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674982991
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World by : Edward B. Rugemer

Download or read book Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World written by Edward B. Rugemer and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-12 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Jerry H. Bentley Book Prize, World History Association The success of the English colony of Barbados in the seventeenth century, with its lucrative sugar plantations and enslaved African labor, spawned the slave societies of Jamaica in the western Caribbean and South Carolina on the American mainland. These became the most prosperous slave economies in the Anglo-American Atlantic, despite the rise of enlightened ideas of liberty and human dignity. Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World reveals the political dynamic between slave resistance and slaveholders’ power that marked the evolution of these societies. Edward Rugemer shows how this struggle led to the abolition of slavery through a law of British Parliament in one case and through violent civil war in the other. In both Jamaica and South Carolina, a draconian system of laws and enforcement allowed slave masters to maintain control over the people they enslaved, despite resistance and recurrent slave revolts. Brutal punishments, patrols, imprisonment, and state-sponsored slave catchers formed an almost impenetrable net of power. Yet slave resistance persisted, aided and abetted by rising abolitionist sentiment and activity in the Anglo-American world. In South Carolina, slaveholders exploited newly formed levers of federal power to deflect calls for abolition and to expand slavery in the young republic. In Jamaica, by contrast, whites fought a losing political battle against Caribbean rebels and British abolitionists who acted through Parliament. Rugemer’s comparative history spanning two hundred years of slave law and political resistance illuminates the evolution and ultimate collapse of slave societies in the Atlantic World.

If I Just Had Two Wings

Download If I Just Had Two Wings PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780773733022
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (33 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis If I Just Had Two Wings by : Virginia Frances Schwartz

Download or read book If I Just Had Two Wings written by Virginia Frances Schwartz and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If I Just Had Two Wings is published by Fitzhenry and Whiteside.

Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad

Download Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393244385
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (932 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad by : Eric Foner

Download or read book Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad written by Eric Foner and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2015-01-19 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom. More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city's major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North’s largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city's free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city’s underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence—including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York—Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring—full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage—and significant—the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by "practical abolition," person by person, family by family.