PDF Download To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester
The reason of why you could obtain and get this To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester earlier is that this is guide in soft file type. You can review the books To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester wherever you desire also you remain in the bus, workplace, house, and other places. However, you could not should relocate or bring guide To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester print any place you go. So, you will not have bigger bag to carry. This is why your choice making far better principle of reading To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester is actually practical from this case.
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester
PDF Download To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester
Utilize the innovative innovation that human creates this day to discover guide To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester effortlessly. However first, we will certainly ask you, how much do you love to read a book To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester Does it constantly till finish? Wherefore does that book review? Well, if you really enjoy reading, try to check out the To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester as one of your reading collection. If you only checked out guide based on need at the time and unfinished, you need to attempt to like reading To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester initially.
To overcome the problem, we now give you the innovation to download the publication To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester not in a thick printed data. Yeah, reading To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester by on the internet or obtaining the soft-file just to review can be among the methods to do. You may not feel that checking out an e-book To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester will work for you. However, in some terms, May people successful are those that have reading habit, included this type of this To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester
By soft documents of the publication To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester to read, you could not have to bring the thick prints almost everywhere you go. At any time you have willing to review To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester, you could open your gizmo to review this e-book To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester in soft data system. So simple and also fast! Reading the soft file book To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester will certainly give you easy means to read. It can also be quicker because you can read your publication To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester all over you want. This online To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester could be a referred book that you can take pleasure in the option of life.
Since e-book To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester has wonderful benefits to read, many individuals now increase to have reading routine. Sustained by the established innovation, nowadays, it is not difficult to purchase the book To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester Also the e-book is not existed yet in the marketplace, you to browse for in this website. As exactly what you could discover of this To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester It will actually reduce you to be the initial one reading this publication To Be A Slave, By Julius Lester and also obtain the benefits.
A Newbery Honor Book
What was it like to be a slave? Listen to the words and learn about the lives of countless slaves and ex-slaves, telling about their forced journey from Africa to the United States, their work in the fields and houses of their owners, and their passion for freedom. You will never look at life the same way again.
"The dehumanizing aspects of slavery are made abundantly clear, but a testament to the human spirit of those who endured or survived this experience is exalted."—Children's Literature
- Sales Rank: #67609 in Books
- Brand: Puffin
- Published on: 2000-12-18
- Released on: 2000-12-18
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x .45" w x 5.40" l, .36 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 176 pages
Features
Most helpful customer reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
SHOULD BE READ BY YOUNG AND OLD ALIKE.
By D. Blankenship
As noted in the description of this work, "To be A Slave" was a 1969 Newbery Honor Book, An ALA Notable Book, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and a Smithsonian Magazine Best Book of the Year. Seldom have I read a book that was actually deserving of these awards more than this work, and in my opinion, so many, many more!
I must note right up front that even though this work was and is targeted for the 9 to 12 age group, it is applicable and fitting for just about any age group over the age of 9. I strongly suggest that this age group, or many in it, may not be ready for this particular read. In my opinion the age grouping probably should start at about 15 or 16 at the earliest. Younger readers should probably have some adult guidance. Folks, we are talking pretty brutal here. Rarely have I read an "adult" work covering this subject which held the dignified impact this book offers. It is profoundly upsetting, and rightfully so. The author, Julius Lester, pulls no punches throughout the entire work and gives his readers a dreadful dose of reality. I must admit that many passages in this work; many of the firsthand accounts (more about that later) of former slaves in the United States, made me literally physically ill. This is a good thing as it is like a cold splash of water (or more accurately...acid), in the face, bring the reader from a compete state of sleep into full and painful wakefulness and awareness.
Many of the stories told here were either suppressed or more or less ignored until the 1930s when the Federal Writers Project was organized. One of their tasks was to interview as many former slaves as possible and record as accurately as possible their story. The author is quick to point out that due to the times, much liberty was taken in rewriting in reference to dialect as it was felt that the average reader simply would not understand the words written and also due to the fact that it was feared that by using the dialect of many individuals interviewed would place in the hand ammunition for those that were trying to prove the inferiority of the Black Race. So sad, but the authors or interviewers did a wonderful job and to a certain extent I must agree with their decision to do this. I have noted that the youth of today have great trouble if reading various dialects and it turns them off a book quite quickly. This is a pity, but we must face the reality of the situation.
This work is a collection of actual interviews with former slaves, not only from the Writer's Project, but documents dating back to the founding of the nation. Most of these interviews and accounts can be found in the Library of Congress. This work covers every aspect of the life of a slave, from their capture in Africa, their trip through the Middle Passage, and then their life of servitude in their new "home." The author addresses the extreme mental and physical cruelty involved, the daily life of a plantation slave, the slave breeding farms of Virginia, the deplorable living condition that the vast majority of these people were forced to live in, the tearing apart of families, diet, clothing, working conditions...and on and on.
I was absolutely delighted in the fact that through this collection of first hand accounts and the authors side comments, that the myth of the "happy darkie" who was content in his or her lot in life and that the vast majority of slaves were quite devoted to their masters. This is a myth that still lingers to this very day in some quarters.
The author is quick to point out that the United States, of all the slave holding countries in the Western Hemisphere, was probably the most brutal and efficient in the effort to stamp out all cultural identity. Various methods were used from the extremely brutal to a rather sophisticated (for that time) brain washing. Religion was used as an effective weapon by the slave holders, which is pretty disgusting when you stop to think of it.
Now readers take warning! There are aspects of this work that are upsetting to the extreme! Accounts recorded during the Middle Passage of babies being thrown over the side of the ship, the deliberate drowning of infants in front of their mothers on Plantations, the tearing apart of families at auction and the sever savagery of the beatings and torture of many of these unfortunate individuals makes for some very grim reading. The simple act of making it through a work day on a typical plantation was an absolute horror. And this went on day after day after day for an entire life time for many of these individuals.
This is classified as a YA but is a rather hardcore YA but that being said, it is probably one of the most useful, effective and truthful books of this genre I have read in years. I cannot imagine a more effective teaching tool. Our country went through two major blights, very dark areas in our history, which are still with us today...slavery and the genocide of the Native Americans. We need to be aware of both of these horrors least we forget. Works such as this go along way in the education process and to be quite frank, we need more of this caliber.
This work needs to be at the head of any young persons reading list, and I must say that it should be at the head of any adults list too. I highly recommend this work but do be prepared to be shocked if you have neglected your readings in the past addressing this subject. For the adult reader, I might suggest further reading and the work This Species of Property: Slave Life and Culture in the Old South (Galaxy Books)
Don Blankenship
The Ozarks
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
it was phenominal
By A Customer
1968 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year In an intensely personal new introduction written for this thirtieth anniversary edition, Julius Lester states that at age ten, when his father told him his family's history went back to a bill of sale and no further, the words were one of the defining moments of my life. Approximately fifteen years later he began compiling the words of ex-slaves--a good portion of which had never been previously published--and establishing the structure for To Be a Slave. The ease and speed with which this structure came made him realize that this book was one of the things [he] had been put on earth to do. In an equally eloquent, new introductory note Tom Feelings expresses a similar sentiment regarding the personal impact of his work for To Be a Slave and his belief in doing work that mov[es] us so emotionally, it makes all of us feel its truth way down deep inside. For thirty years American readers of all ages and walks of life have been affected by the truth of To Be a Slave, which remains one of the few works to present what it felt like to be slave in America in the words of black men and women who lived it rather than filtered through the eyes of others. Paired with Mr. Lester's historical commentary and powerful and soulful paintings by Mr. Feelings, To Be a Slave makes the clear and moving distinction between the generalizations made about slaves and what the emotional reality was for human beings [whose] condition was slavery. I am grateful to the parents, teachers, librarians, and booksellers who have found [To Be a Slave] to be of value. Most of all I am grateful to all those who have read it, to all those who read it. History is not just facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart, and we repeat history until we are able to make another's pain in the heart our own. -- Julius Lester The truth can stretch children's minds, stimulate their imaginations in a creative way, and strengthen their spirits.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Great Rebuttal To The Ole Stars-And-Bars Apologists
By Franklin the Mouse
My 12-year-old son, who is in 7th grade, selected this book from his English teacher's personal class library. It had a huge impact on our African-American son. He as well as his older brother are black and adopted. My wife and I are white. We spent quite a few hours talking about the nature of prejudice and how it manifests in many different ways. I promised "To Be a Slave" was the next one on my list after completing the book I was currently reading. The paradigm for our family is anything goes when it comes to topics we discuss: race, drugs, sex, religion, profanity etc.
Mr. Lester's compilation and descriptions cover the full extent of slavery in America. In their own words, the former slaves describe being abducted from their African homeland; the brutality endured during their arduous trek to North America; the slave auctions; the horrible separation of families to different slave buyers; beatings; plantation life; religious beliefs; Uncle Toms; efforts at resistance; Emancipation and Jim Crow laws. The blunt nature of the stories left a pit in my stomach. Mr. Feelings' accompanying black-&-white drawings add another level of gloom to the work.
Mr. Lester's book is outstanding. It may be tailored for young teens, but the interviews and descriptions supplied by the author are also extremely useful for adults. I seriously question the criteria used for designating certain books as "young reader" material. I read a great deal of nonfiction work and "To Be a Slave" holds up well compared to other books deemed "adult fare." You won't step away from this book without thinking about the darker aspects of the human condition. Educational and riveting stuff packed between this small work that will help anyone understand the true evils of slavery. It's no wonder "this peculiar institution" has left lasting generational scars even up to today.
See all 66 customer reviews...
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester PDF
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester EPub
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester Doc
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester iBooks
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester rtf
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester Mobipocket
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester Kindle
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester PDF
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester PDF
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester PDF
To Be a Slave, by Julius Lester PDF
