Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Maryland

A Novel

A cinematic Reconstruction-era drama of violence and fraught moral reckoning

In Dawson's Fall, a novel based on the lives of Roxana Robinson's great-grandparents, we see America at its most fragile, fraught, and malleable. Set in 1889, in Charleston, South Carolina, Robinson's tale weaves her family's journal entries and letters with a novelist's narrative grace, and spans the life of her tragic hero, Frank Dawson, as he attempts to navigate the country's new political, social, and moral landscape.

Dawson, a man of fierce opinions, came to this country as a young Englishman to fight for the Confederacy in a war he understood as a conflict over states' rights. He later became the editor of the Charleston News and Courier, finding a platform of real influence in the editorial column and emerging as a voice of the New South. With his wife and two children, he tried to lead a life that adhered to his staunch principles: equal rights, rule of law, and nonviolence, unswayed by the caprices of popular opinion. But he couldn't control the political whims of his readers. As he wrangled diligently in his columns with questions of citizenship, equality, justice, and slavery, his newspaper rapidly lost readership, and he was plagued by financial worries. Nor could Dawson control the whims of the heart: his Swiss governess became embroiled in a tense affair with a drunkard doctor, which threatened to stain his family's reputation. In the end, Dawson--a man in many ways representative of the country at this time--was felled by the very violence he vehemently opposed.

Dawson's Fall

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Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

New Jersey

The Life of a Confederate General's Black Daughter

When Carrie Allen McCray was a child, she was afraid to ask about the framed photograph of a white man on her mother's dresser. Years later she learned that he was her grandfather, a Confederate general, and that her grandmother was a former slave. In her late seventies, Carrie McCray went searching for her history and found the remarkable story of her mother, Mary, the illegitimate daughter of General J. R. Jones, of Lynchburg, Virginia. Jones would later be cast out of Lynchburg society for publicly recognizing his daughter. FREEDOM'S CHILD is a loving remembrance of how Mary spent her life beating down the kind of thinking that ostracized her father. She was a leader in the founding of the NAACP and hosted the likes of Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Du Bois as they plotted the war against discrimination at her kitchen table. Carrie McCray's memories reward us with an extraordinarily vivid and intimate portrait of a remarkable woman. "Highly recommended for all readers."--Library Journal, hot pick; "I defy anyone to finish FREEDOM'S CHILD without a tear in their eye, a sense of meeting a great spirit, and an inspiration to act with generosity and justice."--Gloria Steinem; A BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB and QUALITY PAPERBACK BOOK CLUB SELECTION.

Freedom's Child

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Louisiana

A Family Story of Slavery and Child-Murder from the Old South

In the middle of a frigid Sunday night in January 1856, a twenty-two-year-old Kentucky slave named Margaret Gamer gathered up her family and raced north, toward Cincinnati and freedom. But Margaret's master followed just hours behind and soon had the fugitives surrounded. Thinking all was lost, Margaret seized a butcher knife and nearly decapitated her two-year-old daughter, crying out that she would rather see her children dead than returned to slavery. She was turning on her other three children when slave catchers burst in and subdued her.Margaret Garner's child-murder electrified the United States, inspiring the longest, most spectacular fugitive-slave trial in history. Abolitionists and slaveholders fought over the meaning of the murder, and the case came to symbolize the ills of the Union in those last dark decades before the Civil War. Newspaper columnists, poets, and dramatists raced to interpret Margaret's deeds, but by the century's end they were all but forgotten. Steven Weisenburger is the first scholar to delve into this astonishing story in more than a century. Weisenburger integrates his innovative archival discoveries into a dramatic narrative that paints a nuanced portrait of the not-so-genteel Southern culture of slavery and its destructive effect on all who lived in and with it.

Modern Medea #26

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"The first lick from Mr. Peterkin laid my back open. I writhed, I wrestled; but blow after blow descended, each harder than the preceding one. I shrieked, I screamed, I pleaded, I prayed, but here no mercy shown me. Mr. Peterkin having fully gratified and quenched his spleen, turned to Mr. Jones and said 'Now is yer turn; you can beat her as much as you please, only jist leave a bit o'life in her, is all I cares for.' " In the pages of this putative autobiography the author poses as a slave for the purpose of bringing attention to the injustice of slavery. The actual author Mattie Griffith, passing as a black, wanted her book to horrify and shame the nation.

Identifying herself as Ann, a former servant woman, she recalls her protected youth and good education as a nearly-white child. She tells that at twelve she was sold to a brutal master named Peterkin. On his Kentucky plantation she witnessed and experienced the cruelty of slave life. After his death one of his daughters took Ann to the city as her servant. Ann found new friendships there and fell in love with Henry, a slave who killed himself after being cheated out of his self-purchase. After being sold to an elderly Bostonian who emancipated her, Ann finishes her story as a schoolteacher for black children.

Pseudo-slave narratives like Griffith's appeared over the course of the abolitionist movement, and this is the only one now in print.

Born in Kentucky, Griffith was by inheritance the owner of six slaves. As a young woman she went north because she loathed the "peculiar institution." Living in poverty in Philadelphia, Griffith wrote Autobiography of a Female Slave to help finance her effort to emancipate her slaves and resettle them in free territory. She professed a keen knowledge of a slave's daily life and the brutal incidents a slave experienced. From this material she created her fictional story.

The novel failed commercially, although it was hailed within the abolitionist movement. The American Anti-Slavery Society soon afterward gave Griffith the funds to return to Kentucky in order to free and resettle her slaves.

Mattie Griffith (c.1826Ð 1906) has disappeared from American literary history. She remained a lifelong activist, first for abolition, and then for women's suffrage and for temperance. Joe Lockard is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley.

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Autobiography of a Female Slave

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Publications International Ltd. Staff

Takes, stories and tidbits about the civil war. Great book for civil war buffs

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

The Armchair Reader series will entertain and enlighten with little-known anecdotes, untold stories, fascinating facts, and tales of intrigue. The Reader's innovative approach and unique style will capture the imaginations of the Civil War buff and the novice, as well. Discover families that were split in two over the war--even Abraham Lincoln's. Find out which generals rose to the occasion and which failed to live up to expectations. Learn how the technical marvels of the day--land mines, the telegraph, and photography--changed warfare forever.

Armchair Reader Civil War

2b8bf8d2-66a8-428c-a042-ba1bcfb52691-1

Webb B. Garrison

In addition to trivia and facts, the book includes 33 fascinating sidebar articles, and 48 unusual photographs and stories. Thoroughly indexed, this book is a valuable resource for students and researchers. 
￼
Still in original packaging

Unusual and Often Overlooked Facts about America's Civil War

Provides answers to questions on the personalities, statistics, places, weapons, and events of the Civil War

Civil War Trivia and Fact Book

4574e333-1045-4b59-b785-f838ab5e6f25-1

Phillip Katcher

Awesome book for Civil War buffs, jam packed with great facts, illustrations, maps, photographs and more.

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

The hardcover reference titles in the Day by Day series examine the evolution of wars in a chronological timeline, from the first skirmish to the last battle and everything in between. These books are a historical companion to each major war in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The fate of soldiers, battalions, armies, can change in the blink of an eye--with this comprehensive book readers can follow the conflicting sides in their strategy, weaponry, and policies.

The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history, claiming the lives of over 600,000 Americans between 1861 and 1865. The Civil War Day by Day is a chronological, month-by-month approach to the conflict, allowing the reader to see at a glance the key battles on land and at sea; bloody engagements such as the First Bull Run, Antietam, Nashville, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Cold Harbor and Gettysburg. Illustrated throughout with hundreds of contemporary photographs and illustrations, this book also includes full-color maps of all the major battles and campaigns of the war. Each chapter contains boxes on the weapons that were used by both sides in the war, and the tactics that were employed on the battlefield.

The Civil War Day by Day

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Wade Hudson

I have other scholastic readers on my shelf 

New York

Five Bold Freedom Fighters (level 4)

Offers brief profiles of five African American activists who made important contributions to the civil rights movement--Richard Allen, Harriet Tubman, Marry Church Terrell, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Medgar Evers.

Scholastic Reader: Great Black Heroes: Five Bold Freedom Fighters

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Historical fiction from local Maryland author taking place in the next county prompted me to pick up this book. Glad I did!!

Raleigh Bishop's perfect life in rural St. Mary's County, Maryland, has just come to a shattering end. Her naval test pilot husband, Grant, has been killed in a flight accident, and Raleigh is left to pick up the brittle shards of that life. She prefers to stay hidden away in her grief but is unwillingly dragged out of it by the contents of her husband's will, which contain a shocking bequest.

Grant has left her St. Clements Bluff, an old Bishop family home with a noble background as a stop on the Underground Railroad. But serving as a safe house for escaping slaves in the 19th century is just the beginning of what Raleigh learns is a dark and winding history.

It is a history that someone is willing to keep secret at any cost.

Christine Trent has lived in Southern Maryland for over 30 years and loves the place she calls home-from its beautiful shorelines to its perfect cuisine and unrivaled history

Heart of St. Mary’s County - Book One

St. Clements Bluff

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Wendy Lawton

Light creases on front cover. No other flaws.

Texas

A Story Based on the Life of Harriet Tubman

The story of Harriet Tubman's childhood as a slave.

Courage to Run

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#billoreilly #lincoln #abrahamlincoln #assassination #history #civilwar #johnwilkesbooth #slavery

The Shocking Assassination That Changed America

A riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from mega-bestselling author Bill O'Reilly

The iconic anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history--how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not appeased.

In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington D.C., John Wilkes Booth--charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist--murders Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. A furious manhunt ensues and Booth immediately becomes the country's most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a smart but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices. The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions--including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government, Mary Surratt. Featuring some of history's most remarkable figures, vivid detail, and page-turning action, Killing Lincoln is history that reads like a thriller.

Killing Lincoln

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Garry Wills

No writing or other markings inside. Lower back of the dust jacket shows a little bit of wear as you can see in the photo. Remnants of a formal price sticker on front cover. ￼y2fvvq

Massachusetts

Jefferson and the Slave Power

Offers a new look at Thomas Jefferson and his presidency, his election due to the "slave power" vote, the relationship between the power of the slave states and his administration's policies, and the opposition he faced.

Negro President

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Robert Harms

Former library book with typical library markings. Y2fvvq￼

A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade

The Diligent began her journey in Brittany in 1731, and Harms follows her along the African coast where her goods were traded for slaves, to Martinique where her captives were sold to work on sugar plantations. Harms brings to life a world in which slavery was a commerce carried out without qualms. He shows the gruesome details of daily life aboard a slave ship, as well as French merchants wrangling with their government for the right to traffic in slaves, African kings waging epic wars for control of European slave trading posts, and representatives of European governments negotiating the complicated politics of the Guinea coast to ensure a stead supply of labor for their countries' colonies. The Diligent is filled with rich stories that explain how the slave trade worked on all levels, from geopolitics to the rigging of ships.

The Diligent

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Monica Kulling

Nevada

The Story of Harriet Tubman

Escape North!

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#paperback #historicalfiction #slavery #precivilwar #quilts #undergroundrailroad #quilters #elmcreek 

An Elm Creek Quilts Novel

History is thick with secrets in The Sugar Camp Quilt, seventh in the beloved Elm Creek Quilts series from bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini. Set in Creek's Crossing, Pennsylvania, in the years leading up to the Civil War, the novel follows Dorothea Granger's passage from innocence to wisdom against the harrowing backdrop of the American struggle over slavery. She discovers that a quilt she has stitched for her uncle Jacob with five unusual patterns of his own design contains hidden clues to guide runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad. The heroic journey she undertakes leads to revelations about her own courage and resourcefulness -- newfound qualities that may win her the heart of the best man she has ever known.

The Sugar Camp Quilt

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James Haskins

Kathleen Benson

Several tears on the dust sleeve. Please see images. Book itself is mint.

The Forced Migration of Africans to the New World

Discusses the European enslavement of Africans, including their capture, branding, conditions on slave ships, shipboard mutinies, and arrival in the Americas.

Bound for America

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Patricia C. McKissack

Pennsylvania

The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859

In 1859 twelve-year-old Clotee, a house slave who must conceal the fact that she can read and write, records in her diary her experiences and her struggle to decide whether to escape to freedom.

A Picture of Freedom

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Virginia Hamilton

Connecticut

African-Americans from Slavery to Freedom

Many Thousand Gone

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Ohio

"To know things, for us to know things, is bad for them. We get to wanting and when we get to wanting it's bad for them. They thinks we want what they got . . . . That's why they don't want us reading." --Nightjohn



"I didn't know what letters was, not what they meant, but I thought it might be something I wanted to know. To learn." -- Sarny



Sarny, a female slave at the Waller plantation, first sees Nightjohn when he is brought there with a rope around his neck, his body covered in scars.



He had escaped north to freedom, but he came back--came back to teach reading. Knowing that the penalty for reading is dismemberment Nightjohn still retumed to slavery to teach others how to read. And twelve-year-old Sarny is willing to take the risk to learn.



Set in the 1850s, Gary Paulsen's groundbreaking new novel is unlike anything else the award-winning author has written. It is a meticulously researched, historically accurate, and artistically crafted portrayal of a grim time in our nation's past, brought to light through the personal history of two unforgettable characters.

Nightjohn

55551f10-9b37-4af8-be98-b54ef9ea2b69-1

Solomon Northup

BookCaps

Full Book and Comprehensive Reading Companion

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Twelve Years a Slave

2c0a0f46-1063-4b08-bf9b-9fad985f6e58-1

Chains

Melton A. Mclaurin

Book has wear to the edges, spine creasing due to reading. Still a good reading copy.

"Compelling. . . a shocking tale. . . a remarkable account. . . . McLaurin succeeds admirably in using Celia's story to raise larger issues about the meaning of American slavery for both blacks and whites, for both women and men." -- New York Times Book Review

In 1850, fourteen-year-old Celia became the property of Robert Newsom, a prosperous and respected Missouri farmer. For the next five years, she was cruelly and repeatedly molested by her abusive master--and bore him two children in the process. But in 1855, driven to the limits of her endurance, Celia fought back. And at the tender age of eighteen, the desperate and frightened young black woman found herself on trial for Newsom's murder--the defendant in a landmark courtroom battle that threatened to undermine the very foundations of the South's most cherished institution. 

Based on court records, correspondences and newspaper accounts past and present, Celia, A Slave is a powerful masterwork of passion and scholarship--a stunning literary achievement that brilliantly illuminates one of the most extraordinary events in the long, dark history of slavery in America.

Celia, a Slave

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André Brink

This is what it is to be a slave: that everything is decided for you from out there. You just got to listen and do as they tell you. You don't say no. You don't ask questions. You just do what they tell you. But far at the back of your head you think: Soon there must come a day when I can say for myself: This and that I shall do, this and that I shall not.


In Philida, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, André Brink--"one of South Africa's greatest novelists" (The Telegraph)--gives us his most powerful novel yet; the truly unforgettable story of a female slave, and her fierce determination to survive and to be free.

It is 1832 in South Africa, the year before slavery is abolished and the slaves are emancipated. Philida is the mother of four children by Francois Brink, the son of her master. When Francois's father orders him to marry a woman from a prominent Cape Town family, Francois reneges on his promise to give Philida her freedom, threatening instead to sell her to new owners in the harsh country up north. nbsp;
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Here is the remarkable story--based on individuals connected to the author's family--of a fiercely independent woman who will settle for nothing and for no one. Unwilling to accept the future that lies ahead of her, Philida continues to test the limits and lodges a complaint against the Brink family. Then she sets off on a journey--from the southernmost reaches of the Cape, across a great wilderness, to the far north of the country--in order to reclaim her soul.

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Roxana Robinson