In 1848, thirteen-year-old Emily Edmonson, five of her siblings, and seventy other slaves boarded the Pearl under cover of night in Washington, D.C., hoping to sail north to freedom. Within a day, the schooner was captured, and the Edmonsons were sent to New Orleans to be sold into even crueler conditions. Passenger on the Pearl is the story of this thwarted escape, of the ramifications of its attempt, and of a family for whom freedom was the ultimate goal.
Through an engaging narrative, informative sidebars, and more than fifty period photographs and illustrations, Winifred Conkling takes readers on Emily Edmonson's journey from enslaved person to teacher at a school for African American young women. Conkling illuminates a turbulent time in American history, showing the daily lives of enslaved people, the often-changing laws affecting them, the high cost of a failed escape, and the stories of slave traders and abolitionists.
"Readers will discover how Edmonson came into contact with important figures in the antislavery movement, including Frederick Douglass, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Primary documents give an authentic voice to the text, including excerpts from Frederick Douglass's autobiography. Nineteenth-century plates, illustrations, photographic portraits, and posters enhance the text. Historical photographs of slaves and slave pens are particularly moving....This work covers information about slavery that is often not found in other volumes, such as the Second Middle Passage — the transportation of slaves from the Upper South to the Lower South — and the uncomfortable reality of slaves as "second wives" to white men." -- Jeffrey Meyer, School Library Journal
Recommended Age | 12 and up |
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Author | Winifred Conkling |
ISBN | 1616201967 |
Publication Date | Jan 13, 2015 |
Publisher | Algonquin Young Readers |
Language | English |