Although I'm sure there are plenty of other stories about heartbreak, failure, injustice and death, it doesn't take away from these survivors' struggles and joy upon attaining their freedom. These are accounts of people who succeeded at escaping terrible conditions and made something out of their lives. I think others could benefit from it too. This is the book I needed to read at this time. Also, the woman who had killed her own child to prevent it from growing up in slavery, is also in it Toni Morrison used her story in her Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Beloved.” I have told myself that I must try to read her book again, as well as do a reread of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” This is the book that should have won the Pulitzer for what could be more real than that which was real?įredrick Douglas’ escape is in this book. I believe there are 30 accounts from those who had escaped or had tried to escape. Another woman, carrying her baby, jumped across broken up ice on a river to escape. Another slave learns to bark like a dog so he can frighten away his pursuers. He put in a little water and some biscuits and that was all he had for the 26 hours that it would take him to get there.

I didn’t realize that we had actual account from the slaves of their own escapes from slavery, so this book was a surprise to me.Ī slave makes a crate mail himself a free state to an abolishment’s office. Other accounts include that of Henry 'Box' Brown, who hid in a crate mailed to Philadelphia abolitionists Theophilus Collins's escape after 'A Desperate, Bloody Struggle - Gun, Knife and Fire Shovel, Used by Infuriated Master' excerpts from Harriet Jacobs's 1861 narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and the remarkable flight of William and Ellen Craft, 'Female Slave in Male Attire, Fleeing as a Planter, with Her Husband as Her Body Servant.' Thirty selections include the story of Eliza Harris, 'The Slave Woman Who Crossed the Ohio River on the Drifting Ice with Her Child in Her Arms,' whose experience inspired a memorable scene in Uncle Tom's Cabin.

This inexpensive compilation of firsthand accounts offers authentic insights into the Civil War era and African-American history with compelling narratives by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and lesser-known refugees. This will make you have an even deeper respect for those who went through slavery and all they endured.' - Pollard Houseĭuring the 1850s and 1860s more than 100,000 people escaped slavery in the American South by following the Underground Railroad, a complex network of secret routes and safe houses. 'Loved this and I'm not a big history buff.

The underground railroad audio book