Product Description

Imagine escaping from the terrors of plantation slavery, only to live for years in a swamp full of biting insects and deadly snakes. Picture yourself making a dangerous journey to freedom, guided by nothing but courage and the North Star. Think of beginning a new life in a new country, only to fall prey to bounty hunters.

The stories of the people who made up the Underground Railroad, that amazing network of quiet farm houses, peaceful country lanes, and busy city streets that reached from the slave-owning areas of the southern United States to the free states of the north and on to Canada, are among the most moving in our history.

Meet some of the men and women who planned daring and ingenious ways to escape slavery, such as the resourceful Henry "Box" Brown, who mailed himself to Philadelphia's Anti-Slavery Society in a box, and the strong-willed Harriet Tubman, who fled with nothing more than a scrap of bread and the clothes on her back, and then returned to the south year after year to help others find their way to freedom.

North Star to Freedom draws on the stories of the Underground Railroad's courageous "passengers," whose extraordinary spirit broke their own chains, and the brave "conductors," who risked their lives to help others simply because they believed that every person had the right to live free. More than just a book about the worst injustices of slavery, North Star to Freedom is ultimately about resourcefulness, compassion, and hope.

Period posters, photographs, and paintings help to make North Star to Freedom a living history for readers of all ages.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1800066 in Books
• Published on: 1996-10-01
• Released on: 1996-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 168 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-8. A number of innovative and well-researched titles about the Underground Railroad have been published in the 1990s. North Star to Freedom adds to the wealth of information and anecdotes about this important chapter in history because the focus of the book, and the research on which it is based, is centered in Canada, the ultimate destination for many slaves. After recounting a general history of slavery, Gorrell tells of the involvement of Canadian Quakers and abolitionists in aiding and welcoming the runaways. She includes individual accounts of slaves who settled there; among the prints and posters that profusely illustrate her narrative are impressive studio photographs of ex-slaves who prospered in their new home. Brief vignettes introduce each chapter and add human interest to the author's factual account. Told from the British and British-Canadian viewpoint, this history adds a new dimension and perspective to the story of the Underground Railroad. The book contains notes, a bibliography, and other evidence of careful research. It is clearly written and will be useful both as an introduction to the subject and as a supplement to other titles about the period already on the shelves.?Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 5^-10. Hideouts, spies, codes, disguises, and tricks are the exciting facts of Underground Railroad history; the runaways and their conductors are inspiring models of courage and sacrifice. Gorrell, a Canadian Quaker, combines the upbeat escape stories with the history of slavery and with the social, political, and economic conflicts that were part of the struggle for emancipation. The book design is handsome and readable, with thick paper; the clear print is broken up with frequent illustrations, including period prints and photos with long captions. Fictionalized vignettes at the start of each chapter are obtrusive (the history is exciting enough), and some principal figures, including Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, get scant attention (Douglass' autobiography is never cited). What Gorrell adds to the best historical accounts, such as Virginia Hamilton's Many Thousand Gone (1993), is the connection with the Canadian experience: the politics of the abolition movement there, how slaves got there, and what it was like for them when they crossed the border (she's frank about both the welcome and the racism). As in the authoritative accounts about Holocaust refugees, the adventure here is always rooted in the horror some escaped from, the suffering of those who did not get away. Hazel Rochman

From Kirkus Reviews
Subtitled ``The Story of the Underground Railroad,'' this is a compassionate and clear-eyed history of slavery and the brave people who rose up against it. Through conscientious research, Gorrell traces slavery's origins as far back as ancient Egypt and Greece, showing just how deplorable the policies of the US were: In ancient societies, slaves were eventually permitted to buy their freedom, after paying off debts, but in this country, the dark color of Africans was used as ``proof'' of their ``natural inferiority.'' Students who take democratic liberties for granted will gain a more immediate, emotional sense of slavery's horrors from the brief first-person introductions in each chapter. Throughout, Gorrell intelligently explains the economic realities of slavery and its role in the rise of the southern states' aristocracy; she shows how this issue essentially divided the country for years, making armed conflict inevitable. The chapters on the Underground Railroad are full of intriguing facts about secret hiding places and codes, but most riveting of all are the true stories of slaves who escaped their captors: Henry ``Box'' Brown, who shipped himself in a crate to free Philadelphia; William and Ellen Craft, a married pair of slaves who disguised themselves as a slave and his rich male owner and traveled to freedom. With numerous black-and-white photos and period line drawings, this is an indispensable and inspirational tool in any classroom. (b&w map, chronology, notes, further reading, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.