April 2009 Theme Read - Slavery - Discussion

This is the thread which should be used for discussion/reviews of the books read in April for the 2009 Global Reading Group – Slavery. When reviewing the book please keep the following questions in mind. With help from sites on the internet, including LitLovers, I’ve created a set for fiction and non-fiction.

Fiction:

1 What did you learn about slavery in school and life? How much of what you were taught was influenced by where you grew up, your own race, or the race of your teachers?

2. Is there a history of slavery in your own family? If so, how did that color your reading of the story?

3. How did this book enhance your knowledge of the subject of slavery or racial oppression? Were you surprised by anything you learned?

4. How was/were the character(s) enslaved? By whom? Their race?

5. Did the character(s) have choices which would have removed them from slavery or racial oppression? If so, did they employ those choices? If they didn’t, why not? If they had no chances for freedom, were they aware of the hopelessness of their situation and how did that affect them.

6. Which detail(s) from your book affected you most?

7. If revealed, what were the economic and/or racial issues which lead to the imposition of slavery.

8. Could you relate to the characters? Were their problems realistic? Was the book well written. Would you recommend it to others.

Non-Fiction:

1. What is the central idea or premise offered in the book? What are the problems or issues raised?

2. What evidence does the author give to support the book’s ideas? Does the author use personal observations and assessments? Facts? Statistics? Opinions? Historical documents? Scientific research? Quotations from authorities?

3. Is the evidence convincing? Is it relevant or logical? Does it come from authoritative sources? Is the evidence speculative? How so?

4. Does the author offer long-term or short-term consequences to the problems or issues raised in the book? If so, are they positive or negative? Affirming or frightening?

5. Does the author offer solutions to the problems or issues raised in the book? Who would implement those solutions? How probable is success? Can you see other solutions? Who would implement those solutions? How probable is success?

6. Are the issues raised in the book controversial? How so? Who is aligned on which sides of the issues? Would you agree or disagree? Why?

7. Do the issues affect your life or the lives or those close to you? How so, directly, more generally, on a daily basis? Now or sometime in the past?

8. Are there specific passages which struck you personally as interesting, profound, silly, shallow, incomprehensible, illuminating? Did you learn anything new from this book or did it broaden your understanding of the issues raised.

I'm getting a head start on this since the February free download from christianaudio.com was Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade and How We Can Fight It by David Batstone. I'm looking forward to reading what everyone else reads in April.

Non-Fiction:

1. What is the central idea or premise offered in the book? What are the problems or issues raised?

Not For Sale by David Batstone discusses the modern-day slave trade. He works around the globe providing a personal example of slavery and a local abolitionist group working in that same area. He provides statistics, reviews of laws in various countries, and common truths and misconceptions.

2. What evidence does the author give to support the book’s ideas? Does the author use personal observations and assessments? Facts? Statistics? Opinions? Historical documents? Scientific research? Quotations from authorities?

All of the above. Statistics from the US State Dept and other reputable organizations. Plus personal stories, quotes from people in the field fighting slavery.

3. Is the evidence convincing? Is it relevant or logical? Does it come from authoritative sources? Is the evidence speculative? How so?

The evidence seems convincing and relevant, pulled from good sources and put in context by the author.

4. Does the author offer long-term or short-term consequences to the problems or issues raised in the book? If so, are they positive or negative? Affirming or frightening?

The author provides short-term consequences to the problems and the current state of affairs, most are negative and even frightening. The success stories and ongoing efforts of the abolitionists provide a positive side but success of a large scale is not happening.

5. Does the author offer solutions to the problems or issues raised in the book? Who would implement those solutions? How probable is success? Can you see other solutions? Who would implement those solutions? How probable is success?

The primary source of solutions is the individual abolitionist organizations that he discusses. However, he touches on the UN and country governments and policing actions that could have a large impact.

6. Are the issues raised in the book controversial? How so? Who is aligned on which sides of the issues? Would you agree or disagree? Why?

He discussed the fact that Germany and the Netherlands have legalized prostitution, arguing that would eliminate the need for the criminal activity around importing sex slaves (he argues that slavery and prostitution are very closely linked), but that both countries have seen the black market for sex slaves actually increase. However, in Sweden they have put more focus on punishing the johns and on helping the prostitutes which he says has been much more successful. The numbers, however, are pitifully small.

The primary issue that I kept hearing is that the authorities (honest and corrupt) treat the slaves as the criminal instead of as a victim. In sex slavery especially, the slaves and traffickers will be prosecuted but the johns often are ignored. But the simple math of supply and demand means there will always be an illegal supply to meet the demand.

7. Do the issues affect your life or the lives or those close to you? How so, directly, more generally, on a daily basis? Now or sometime in the past?

The easy answer is that there is no immediate impact. Of course, as the author points out, there is probably slavery going on in my local city that I am unaware of. As a compassionate human being I have to be affected now that I have knowledge of this and the extent to which it exists in the world.

8. Are there specific passages which struck you personally as interesting, profound, silly, shallow, incomprehensible, illuminating? Did you learn anything new from this book or did it broaden your understanding of the issues raised.

I learned a lot about the issue including how large the problem is. I am not surprised by much of it, but the depth of the depravity in the world still astounds me at my less-cynical times.

Early this month I finished Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, which I think is worthy of being added to the April read.

Dana is a black woman, married to Kevin, a white man, who are lodged in 1976. Suddenly Dana begins time traveling back to the early 1800s in order to save the life of her great-great-great-great grandfather, a white man and son of a plantation slave holder, Rufus. This novel gives the reader an excellent sense of what it was like to live as a black woman in that time, and also why Dana is confused and conflicted about the differences between what she's been taught about how to act as a black woman and how she must act in order to survive in her time travel era. I felt that all of the time travel "science" of the differences in the passage of time between the two places and how the actions of those in the past affected Dana's future was well explained with the exception of the death of Alice's (Alice is Dana's black great-grandmother) mother, herself a relative of Dana. However, this was a small thing and did not hinder the page-turning quality of this very good novel.

What did you learn about slavery in school and life? How much of what you were taught was influenced by where you grew up, your own race, or the race of your teachers?

I'm white and was born and raised until 11 in Montana in a small town which had no minorities. Then I lived in Tempe, AZ until 21, in a area which was much more diverse and where the largest population in my school was hispanic. I had no teachers from minorities until I was in college. My parents were very strict about teaching us to get along with everyone and my brothers and I all had friends who were from minorities.

Is there a history of slavery in your own family? If so, how did that color your reading of the story?

No.

How did this book enhance your knowledge of the subject of slavery or racial oppression? Were you surprised by anything you learned?

I was reminded, though had read it before, that slaves needed a "pass" to move between plantations, even on Sunday, their one day off.

How was/were the character(s) enslaved? By whom? Their race?

In time traveling back to 1843 Dana discovers that she has no control over the time travel, and cannot get back to her own time. Since she is black she is immediately assumed to be a slave and is treated accordingly.

Did the character(s) have choices which would have removed them from slavery or racial oppression? If so, did they employ those choices? If they didn’t, why not? If they had no chances for freedom, were they aware of the hopelessness of their situation and how did that affect them.

Dana is somewhat caught by her circumstances. The time traveling is not by choice. She is drawn back because Rufus is in grave danger of dying. Once there she must try to deal with whatever the situation is. The situation changes as Rufus grows, allowing Dana to try to escape the slave situation. Initially, she's not successful, but never gives up trying.

Which detail(s) from your book affected you most?

I was most emotionally caught by Dana's inability, at first, to grasp the very dangerous and tenuous situations that the other slaves are in. Coming from the 1970s she makes assumptions about how easy it should be for them to improve their lot or leave the plantation, and quickly learns that is not the case, to the detriment of both the slave(s) and herself.

If revealed, what were the economic and/or racial issues which lead to the imposition of slavery.

The plantation she is pulled to is not a really prosperous one. The landowner is middle class, at best. Dana is like a gift from the Gods for the landowner, because he didn't have to buy her and she's very intelligent. On the other hand, he doesn't want her around because he perceives that she's a danger for the rest of the slaves as she knows how to read and write (better than he does), but he can't sell her because her well being is tied to that of his son.

Could you relate to the characters? Were their problems realistic? Was the book well written. Would you recommend it to others.

I related very well to Dana and Henry who were thrust back in time and had to speedily figure out their place in the plantation.

I guess I cheated a bit as I read my book in March - but it had to go back to the library and could not be renewed!

But first, a quick run down of my previous Slave reads and I was surprised to find there were 7:
1) Bound by Sally Gunning 5* : An excellent read about an indentured servant.
2) Sold: Story of Modern Day Slavery by Zana Muhsen 5* : A true story about two British-raised sisters who were sold by their Yemeni father back into his contry as wives.
3) Stigmata by Phyllis J Perry 5* : A slightly off-beat telling of the slavery story - a patchwork quilt prompts visions of the past sufferings of Lizzie's great grandmother who was a slave. Sounds odd but I loved it.
4) Soul Catcher by Michael White 2* : The story from the point of view of a man sent out to bring back runnaways.
5) Hang a Thousand Ribbons by Ann Rinaldi 4* : A YA book based on the life of the first African American poet.
6) Slave Girl: The Diary of Clotee by Patricia McKissack 4* : Another YA book, a basic story of a slave girl.
7) Remember Me by Lesley Pearse 5* : An excellent retelling of the fate of Mary Broad, sentenced to death for stealing a loaf of bread but then sent to Australia. The crossing was very like that of the slaves from Africa and technically she was a prisoner but her life was that of a slave to all intents and purposes.

OK, this month's read was Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill, also published as The Book of Negroes
This was a very readable account of the sufferings and abuse of slaves taken from Africa in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Their struggles were represented by Aminata Diallo who we meet at the beginning of the book as an old woman helping the abolitionists fight for the termination of slave importation to Britain.
In order to support the cause Aminata (known as Meena) writes her life story and it is this account that we read in the succeeding pages.

She was abducted from her villiage in the interior of Africa, where Whites, or Toubabu, had never been seen but were widely feared. At the age of eleven she was forced to walk for 3 months to reach the coast where the slave ships waited. She was branded with the name of her owner and forced on board a ship whose stench could be smelt for miles away.

In America Meena worked on an indigo plantation, but also used the skills she'd learned from her mother, a midwife. She learned the use of medicinal herbs through Georgia, who took her in and nursed her to health after the arduous crossing. She also learned to read from the overseer, who noticed a spark in her. Reading was strongly forbidden amongst the slaves and had to be done in secret.

From here, circumstances took her to Charlestown, New York and on to Nova Scotia in Canada where freed slaves who had fought for the British were offered a 'new life'. Finally the oportunity come to return to Africa, occupying an area of Sierra Leone known as Freetown. Many of those settling down here had never set foot on African soil; they had been born under slavery in foreign lands.

The book is filled with details of the struggle of slaves at this time and the apalling way that they were often treated, but it also glows with joyous times and friendships, sharing and hope.

And there was a wonderful quote from Jonathan Swift, writing about the failings of the cartographers of Africa who had no idea what was in the interior of the country:
So geographers, in Afric-maps
With savage-pictures fill their gaps
And o'er uninhabitable downs
Place elephants for want of towns.

Highly recommended.

Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball

Following my resolution to do group reads from MT TBR, I donned my bottled Oxygen, scaled to the top and read this 1998 National Book Award winner (nonfiction).

Author Edward Ball knew his ancestors had once been a dynasty of South Carolina plantation owners, owning hundreds of slaves and dealing as slave traders involved in the direct importation of slaves on the death ships from Africa.

When Ball decided to explore this aspect of his family tree, he met with mixed response from his numerous relatives. Many of his younger relatives embraced the idea; others, especially in the older generations, thought it was best forgotten.
Ball persisted and researched literally thousands of pages of family papers, both private and in plantation records preserved in institutions and libraries.

The family was founded when John and Affra Coming arrived in what would become South Carolina in 1669. Thirty years later they had plantation and slaves, but no heir. Enter their nephew, Elias Ball, who came to the Americas in 1698 and took over their plantation. The dynasty Elias Ball founded left literally hundreds of descendants and dozens of plantations during the pre-Civil war era.

Edward Ball not only follows the history of his white forefathers, but was able to trace back several slave families from when they first arrived as slaves in the Americas to emancipation four and five generations after their capture and enslavement, through Reconstruction and to the people they are today.

Also hidden in the story, Ball found tales of children of mixed race, fathered on slaves in secret or not-so-secret by men who owned them. These children were called the ‘step aside’ children as the fathers would usually ‘step aside’ after their birth and not acknowledge them. Others were acknowledged to a degree; given their freedom, they became sort of an intermediate class of tradespeople, usually having trouble finding a niche in the world to call their own.

Finally, Ball completed his journey by traveling to Bunce Island in Sierra Leone—a notorious port for the shipment of slaves. A rock jetty still exists where slave boats docked. This jetty was the last bit of African earth touched by the feet of tens of thousands enslaved and boarded onto ships. Ball talked to descendants of the African slave dealers and physically closed the circle, although this is a period of history that the descendants of the black slavers also regard with unease. No answers exist to answer how white and black slavers and masters justified their economic interest.

I learned a lot about black slavery in the US. This book truly brought home the humanity of the black slaves (and to a lesser extent, the Native American slaves which were also held in the early era of colonialism).

I felt the book lacked some focus in the middle section and thus made it drag. Ball’s technique of jumping forward and back from current descendants to family founders of the many different black and white branches of the various family trees, sometimes made for confusion. This was somewhat alleviated by the 65 pages of family trees, notes, bibliography and index included in the end of the book. This was a huge undertaking by Ball, but by the very largeness and complexity of his project, the size and many-headed hydra of black slavery in the US is brought to light.

4 stars,

Cambridge by Caryl Phillips (4 stars)

Emily Cartwright is a 30 year old unmarried early 19th century Englishwoman whose father sends her to an unnamed Caribbean island to check on the state of his sugar plantation. She and her maidservant board a vessel that is ill-prepared for the women, and her aide does not survive the journey. She is a modern and refined woman, mildly opposed to slavery but quite naive about the benefits it provides to her and other wealthy Englanders. She keeps a journal of her voyage and stay at the plantation, in order to educate other Englishwomen about the immorality of plantation society.

When she arrives at the plantation, the manager she is expecting to meet has been replaced by a boorish and brutal overseer, Arnold Brown. He is especially harsh toward Cambridge, a well educated and devoutly Christian slave who refuses to subjugate to Brown's physical and psychological mistreatments. The conflict between the men progressively escalates until it reaches its tragic conclusion.

The first 2/3 of the book consists of Emily's journal. Most of the remainder of the book is Cambridge's account of his own life and his conflict with Brown, which seems to be hastily written in his final days. The juxtaposition between the characters' views of these events is striking, and the reader is not completely sure which account, if either, is accurate. The final pages include the Court's accounts of these events, which differ from Emily's or Cambridge's narrative, and ends with a final and most unexpected twist.

The two narratives are believable and captivating. Although he probably intended it this way, Cambridge's account is somewhat rushed and harried, and the ending is a bit too abrupt. However, this was a very enjoyable novel by a gifted storyteller.

I found a good book about slavery in my library: When I Was a Slave, a set of real life stories compiled by Norman R. Yetman.

I bought this book in Atlanta, during a visit to the house of Martin Luther King and to the The King Center. The Center "is the official, living memorial dedicated to the advancement of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of America’s greatest nonviolent movement for justice, equality and peace".

I finished Sweetsmoke by David Fuller.

Cassius is a 30-something slave on a Virginia tobacco plantation, Sweetsmoke, owned by Hoke Howard, who has been Cassius’s only owner and had named him at birth. The whereabouts of his parents is never discussed, but he was raised by old Mam' Rosie, who also raised Hoke's children.

Hoke and Cassius have a complex relationship, part long-standing affection, part fear (on both sides), and part grudging respect. Early in the book Hoke tells Cassius the bad news that Emoline, a former slave freed by Hoke some years before, and a woman who had saved Cassius' life after he fled the plantation, had been murdered. Though Hoke had clearly once loved Emoline, he seems to feel no interest in finding her murderer. Cassius, however, feels he must uncover the truth and avenge her death.

The reader really feels the plight of the slaves, and one of the ways it's made obvious is that whenever anyone who is free speaks there are quote marks around their speech. If they are slaves, there are no quotes. Thus, the reader is always aware of the difference in position of the speakers, even between a slave and a freed negro.

The descriptions of slave life are often very gritty and give the reader an excellent idea of how horrible it was to be property of another human, one who felt their property was subhuman and inconsequential. It is clear that the slaves are always fearful not only for their lives, but that their white owners might sell them, or their family members. They live in constant fear of being separated, and especially sold to cotton farmers, that being a much more difficult job and because the cotton farms were so far away they knew they would never see their loved ones again if they or the loved ones were sold to cotton farmers. As the war advances and the plantation experiences greater and greater hardships, the fear of the slaves increases that they or their loved ones will be sold without warning.

The plantation owners, with one exception, treat most slaves as if they were both deaf and like young children. They work them 14-18 hours a day, 6 days a week, often under absolutely backbreaking conditions. If the slave runs away they are hunted down by a posse of poor whites and are then whipped brutally, often hobbled (the Achilles tendon sliced) to keep them from running again, and then sold at the earliest opportunity. The women are subject to being picked out by the men and used for sexual gratification, which then brings the ire of the wife down on their heads. It is not uncommon for them or their children to be sold away from the plantation as a result. The description of the one slave sale (a woman), which took place during the book, was so horribly degrading that I cannot imagine psychologically surviving it.

There was one landowning couple who treated their slaves as family, eating and sleeping in the same conditions the slaves did. But this was an anomaly.

It is also apparent that the slaves themselves are jockeying for the best positions at the plantation and will often do whatever is necessary to advance themselves, even at the expense of another slave. They connive, lie, and tattle on each other. In addition, there were several instances when the white women of the plantation (so often depicted in the movies to be so kind and benevolent) were spiteful, manipulative, or horribly cruel, to the ultimate degradation, incredible pain, or death of the slaves.

Having read Frederick Douglass’ and Harriet Jacobs’ slave memoirs, I know that all that was described in the book were indeed things which actually happened.

I'm currently reading A Crime So Monstrous about modern slavery, but that won't be finished until well into May.

I have A Crime So Monstrous too, and won't get to it until next month as well.

I'm finding it hard to keep up with my regular reading, the reading for the groups on LT, etc.

Right now I'm reading Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - not for the slavery theme here, but there are parellels. Could the re-education camps be called slavery? Then what about the internment camps for Japanese - Americans during WWII? As I read the description of her book, Whymaggiemay is describing things that the characters in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress also describe.

I seem to have misplaced my book when I reorganized my office/sewing room, so I will join you all when I find it, April or not:-(

I read Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs.

1. What is the central idea or premise offered in the book? What are the problems or issues raised?

Linda was born into slavery, and after broken promises and unsavory treatment from her "master" she was forced to start making some very difficult choices for the future of her children and herself. Once she makes the choice to run, she soon finds out that her "master" will not give her up without a fight.

2.What evidence does the author give to support the book's ideas?

This is a story of her life as told by her and backed up by the people in her life that helped her along the way, and in turn, she helped them in ways she may have never known.

3. Is the evidence convincing?

Well, the best I can say is that if it isn't a real story, she did a very good job with spining it into what she did, a whole life and everything.

I choose to skip 4 and 5 as I do not see the point with the book I picked.

6. Are the issues raised controversial? Who is aligned on which side of the issues? Would you agree or disagree? Why?

The issues are none other than slavery, so yes they are very controversial. It was really about White and Black. After everything the slaves went through, most could never trust a white person again (understandable). There were the few whites that sympathized with the slaves and truely did work for the good. But, most people stayed in thier perspective corners. Even the North had its issues with the black race. I think I maybe i that gray line with the whites helping and hiding the slaves. I never would have had a slave even if I had lived in the South. Come to think of it, I probably would have done some prison time or been hung because of it all.

7. Do the issues affect your life or the lives of people close to you? How so, directly, more generally, on a daily basis? Now or sometime in the past?

This issue IS my family. I have a mixed family. I think about what was done to the babies born to a white woman, and the fact that the love I have for my husband was cause for death if all was found out. Everyday I think about what all has changed in our country and I am thankful.

I don't know if I learned anything new from the book, but I did get a new found respect for the slaves. I always found that they had an undying love for family and community, and faith, and that was something everyone could learn from. I think that as time goes on we as a society forget that if we love each other as family and come together as one, all things are STILL possible. I am not one to pass out free hugs on the corner, but I am one to stop and help a person in need-no matter the color or situation.

I finished A Crime So Monstrous which put faces on modern-day slavery.

Benjamin Skinner did a very good job of tackling a tremendously complicated and difficult subject in this book. As he points out, there are more slaves in the world today than ever before, but they represent a smaller percentage of the world’s population than previously. “Slavery is a slippery and confounding evil, and persists despite twelve international conventions banning the slave trade, and over three hundred international treaties banning slavery.” It’s been estimated that there are 27 million slaves in the world today. Skinner adopts as his definition of slavery human beings forced to work, through force or fraud, for no pay beyond subsistence.

Skinner admits that his book is not all inclusive. In five years he visited twelve countries and interviewed over 100 slaves, slave dealers, and survivors. However he did not visit or investigate countless other countries (including China) where slavery exists.

Skinner begins his story in Port-au-Prince, Haiti where more than 10,000 street kids, mostly boys as young as six, sell unprotected sex for $1.75. In addition, there are many thousands of domestic slaves called restaveks, children as young as three from rural areas who are given to the traffickers for promises that their children will be well fed and educated (something they don’t have themselves but wish for their children). They are totally unaware that their children will be sold by the trafficker as domestic or sex slaves, starved, beaten, and definitely not educated. During this section of the book Skinner interviews slaves, slave owners, traffickers, local officials whose job it is to stop slavery, church and social organizations trying to help the slaves, and parents who had given up their children in the hopes of bettering their lot.

Skinner then turns to the United States and how the Bush administration is responding, or not, to the question of slavery in the world. He introduces the reader to John Miller, the head of the United States Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Skinner covers in length the dedication and many, many, many hours of work that Miller and his staff expend in trying to make some small difference in the overwhelming tide of slavery. Throughout the book he returns to Miller again and again to show how Miller is responding to each of the challenges in the areas he has visited and how the Bush administration responds, or not, to each.

Throughout the book Skinner visits the Sudan, Romania, Moldova, Turkey, the Netherlands, Dubai, India, and more. In each he exposes a little of the underbelly for us to view, but tells us about much, much more he cannot show us. Through his interviews he depicts slavery with a series of different faces, but always horrifying in whatever form it takes. Skinner cannot show us all the countries, all the faces of subjugation, but he does a good job of explaining the many ways in which slavery exists today, how its allowed to do so, why it must be stopped, and some of the ways that it could be possible if only enough law, money, force, and power were put behind it.

I hear references to Uncle Tom's Cabin all the time but had never read it before now. It took me over a month to read but it was worth it.

The story follows Tom, a slave in Kentucky who is sold after his kind masters hit some hard times and have to settle a debt. He has the opportunity to run away with 2 other slaves, but opts to be sold because it is the will of his master and Tom's mission in life is to do as his master asks. As he is preparing to leave his family and his cabin his wife cooks his favorite breakfast one last time. That entire scene left me crying my eyes out.

I think this is where the phrase, "sold up the river," comes from because he is sold and moves up the river. Good or bad, his story continues from there.

It made me consider what it was truly like to live in the south in the 1850s, when her story was written. In fact, the funnest part of reading it for me (if reading about slavery can be considered fun) was knowing that it was written before the Civil War. I learned that some say this book, which was actually not a book but a serial installment released in a magazine of the time, was like a rattling saber, "starting" the Civil War! Abraham Lincoln met her and said, "So this is the little lady who made this big war"!!! Can you imagine?!

The end of the book gets a little too religious for my taste, but I am able to forgive it considering the time period it was written in.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:
* "Your heart is better than your head, in this case, John," said the wife, laying her little white hand on his. "Could I ever have loved you, had I not known you better than you know yourself?"

* Of course, in a novel, people's hearts break, and they die, and that is the end of it; and in a story this is very convenient. But in real life we do not die when all that makes life bright to us dies to us. There is a most busy and important round of eating, drinking, dressing, walking, visiting, buying, selling, talking, reading, and all that makes up what is commonly called living, yet to be gone through; and this yet remained to Augustine.

* "Well," said St. Clare, "suppose that something should bring down the price of cotton once and forever, and make the whole slave property a drug in the market, don't you think we should soon have another version of the Scripture doctrine? What a flood of light would pour into the church, all at once, and how immediately it would be discovered that everything in the Bible and reason went the other way!"

Harriet Beecher Stowe did a brilliant job exploring every persons' aspect of slavery through her tale, which is partially based on true stories.