To Be a Slave (Puffin Modern Classics)

When Julius Lester was nine years old, his father told him, "Our family tree ends in a bill of sale. Lester is the name of the family that owned us." This was the defining moment that set young Julius Lester on a search of the past to understand his family history and the indignity of slavery. In the early 1960's, Mr. Lester's wife introduced him to black history. He discovered a book by B. A. Botkin called Lay My Burden Down, which told the story of slavery through the words of people who had been slaves. Soon Mr. Lester was pouring over documents from the Library of Congress to find stories of slaves in hope of finding a record by his own great-grandparents. His search would lead to passion that would spark several books on slavery. To Be A Slave, is the history of slavery told by actual slaves in their own words. The stories begin with the capture of blacks in Africa and their transport to America. The stories continue to after slaves are given their freedom at the end of the Civil War and relate the obstacles that continue until the time their stories were collected in the 1930's. Theses stories tell of the hardships of slavery, from poor housing, insufficient food and clothing, ill-treatment, and the separation of families. They show the hero like worship of white owners by some slaves, and the hatred of white owners by others. Some stories tell the ingenuity of slaves to do what was required, but often manage to outwit their owners by playing dumb. Other stories show the jubilation and celebration of their freedom from slavery by Northern soldiers. Ending stories tell of the disillusionment of suffering of former slaves when they are forced to depend on former white owners to physically survive after the Northern soldiers go home. How they are often forced to become sharecropper and often cheated of their crops or wages, instead of being provided with opportunities to own their own farms and become independent. Former slaves also tell of the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the horrors and misfortune of being treated as an inferior race. This is an important book with the stories of former slaves that you will not soon forget. These stories help us as Americans to understand some of the reasons and frustrations that lead to today's misunderstandings and difficulties with black and white relations.

Short and Powerful. It is a quick and emotional read.

This book tells the true history, true stories of slavery not what the history books faked. It’s an amazing book. Highly recommend for all to read; if only high school allowed this

A great read on the insight of the minds of those held in bondage so long ago. By the bibliography you can ascertain that his research was thorough and I enjoyed delving into the minds of those lost long and not so long ago.

Although this book is very condensed it has a lot of details about the enslaved Africans and their descendants experience. It also sheds light on how many of our cultural traditions came about.

1. What I likes about this book is that you get the message threw special quotes in the story . 2. I would recommend this book to my teacher because she loves books like this . 3. I choose this rating because I have never taken notes like I did and i read this book in two days I have never done that before ever this is my first time reading a book this summer I didn’t want to touch a book because I am very picky on my books and this book was such a good book it was perfect. I loved every part of this book .

This book was recomended by a relative who had read it and told me about some of the events in the book. I had read other books to learn about the horrors of slavery so I wanted to read this one. This is the first time I've read actual facts that are stored in the Library of Congress. I enjoyed this book even though I had to put it down at times because of some of the horrible things that were done to the slaves who are my ancestors. I would recomend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about the horrors of slavery.

Fast delivery, and a solid read. I was not familiar with the author's work until it was announced he had died. A bit of research brought me to his work. So glad I found it. Regret that I was not supportive of his work during his lifetime.

Not a story but a rendition of the slave experience from their point of view. A sad collection of anecdotes from real slaves as opposed to fictional tales depicting the same. I guess it makes this time in history real.