Our Song, Our Toil

The Story of American Slavery As Told By Slaves

compiled and edited by Michele Stepto

Millbrook press, 1994

Genre: Children's nonfiction

Reading Level: Ages 9-11

95 pages

Our Song, Our Toil is a captivating book about the lives of American slaves throughout history. IN the different chapters it describes different aspects of a slave's life, and then shares at least one story told by an actual slave. The first chapter, "Into Captivity" is about captives being taken from West Africa and sold into slavery and the miserable journey they made to get to America, if they survived. In this chapter the reader learns about Olaudah Equiano a boy born in Nigeria that was captured and sold into slavery along with his family. He talks about getting split up from his family, the horrible trip in the ship to his new home as a slave of a British Naval Officer who took him to England and later sold him to a Philadelphia Quaker, from whom Olaudah bought his freedom when he was twenty one, and lived the rest of his life as a free man in London. In the second chapter, "Born a Slave" the author talks about how children were considered slaves if their mother was a slave, and the master who owned the mother in turn owned all her children; born and unborn. The chapter also talks about how children were usually separated from their parents at an early age, and rarely ever saw them again. This chapter has a couple of personal stories, the most well known from Frederick Douglas who talks about how he only saw his mother four or five times in his life, and actually had been sent to live with his grandparents and their master who was very fearsome. Chapter three, "the Enslaved Family", is a chapter about how as slavery progressed after the American revolution more and more slave families were ripped apart. If you could even call them families. Enslaved people weren't allowed to be legally married, had no rights to their children, and many were punished if they even recognized their kin by calling them brother, sister, etc. The families could not have their own surnames, and usually took the name of their masters, though they often had secret surnames to keep track of their ancestry orally. This chapter has the story of a slave named Elizabeth who when separated from her family clung to her religion to get her through until she was freed at the age of thirty. Chapter four, "The Work of Slavery" discusses the different work that the slaves were in charge of based on their region. In the North slaves fulfilled several different tasks; from helping on a farm, in a house, also helping to build roads and cities . They also labored in the growing industries like shipbuilding, lumbering, mining, etc. In the South, slaves mostly worked on farms, clearing the land, tending the crops, and harvesting. The Southern owners started to rely on the slaves for everything that needed to be done, that's why it became so important to them. Solomon Northup's story is in this chapter. He was born and raise free in upstate New York but when he was thirty-two years old he was kidnapped and sold into slavery and worked on a cotton farm for the next twelve years. In chapter five, "The Resistance" the reader learns about how slaves who were unable to escape rebelled in ways big and small. As far as big, many groups took up arms against their masters, though their attempts failed their actions gave courage to other slaves for future fights. however this blunt resistance was rare and more common was the day to day rebellion. This ranged from running away to rest before returning, breaking equipment, burning buildings, pretending to be ill, and many other antics. In this chapter we learn about a slave woman named Fannie who was a slave in Tennessee. She was a field hand and, as we read, had quite a temper. Her story is about one day when she got really angry when her master hit her with a stick and she hit back. Chapter six, "Literacy", is about another resistance the slaves took hold of. There were several anti-literacy laws that banned slaves from learning to read or write. But many slaves found ways around these laws, learning from their free friends and surrounding people's information. The slaves knew that literacy and freedom went hand in hand so they struggled to learn everything they could to read and write. in this chapter we learn more about Frederick Douglass, and his experience as slave. When Douglass was a slave in Baltimore his mistress Sophia gave him reading lessons, however when his master found out he put an immediate halt to it. But Douglass never forgot what he learned and did everything he could to build on his knowledge. "Escaping Slavery" is chapter seven and it is about those slaves that attempted, and succeeded in escaping their condition. It talks about the underground railroad aiding in escape, where the ex slaves went when they ran (usually to the Northwest). However in 1850 many of the escapes were halted when the fugitive slave law was passed which made it against the law to know about a slave that had escaped and not reported it, taking away free soil for the slaves. In this chapter we read about Andrew Jackson who was born into slavery into Kentucky and escaped at the age of twenty five and his fight against the men who tried to force him back into slavery. The final chapter of the book, "On to Freedom" talks about how slavery changed due to the Civil War, Westward Expansion, and finally the Emancipation Proclamation which halted slavery in many states and halted its expansion. in this final chapter we learn about Annie L. Burton who had been separated from her family but as the war ended they were freed and reunited.

I would recommend this book to any child interested in history, particularly those learning about slavery in school or from their parents.

As far as controversy from this book, I think it will be hard for some people to share a story with their children that is uplifting and happily ever after, it's the truth and it is what it is.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was well written, captivating, and I felt the personal accounts really helped me to get into the mindset of a slave and share their pain and suffering and turmoil.

My rating: 4 out of 5