Lyons, Mary E. Letters from a slave boy; the story of Joseph Jacobs.LYONS, Mary E. Letters from a slave boy; the story of Joseph Jacobs Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 - 30 January 1916) was a literary and Jewish historian. He was a writer for the Jewish Encyclopaedia and a notable folklorist, creating several noteworthy collections of fairy tales. . Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster U.S. publishing company. It was founded in 1924 by Richard L. Simon (1899–1960) and M. Lincoln Schuster (1897–1970), whose initial project, the original crossword-puzzle book, was a best-seller. , Atheneum ath·e·nae·um also ath·e·ne·um n. 1. An institution, such as a literary club or scientific academy, for the promotion of learning. 2. A place, such as a library, where printed materials are available for reading. . 208p. illus. bibliog. 0-689-87867-2. $15.99. JS This is a companion novel to Lyons's Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet-Jacobs (1992), which was based on Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the 1861 narrative of a woman pursued by a cruel slave master. Harriet hid in an attic crawl space crawl·space or crawl space n. A low or narrow space, such as one beneath the upper or lower story of a building, that gives workers access to plumbing or wiring equipment. Noun 1. for seven years in Edenton, NC, to be near her children (though she was forced to conceal her presence from them), then fled north to Boston and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . In this follow-up, the protagonist is Harriet's son Joseph, who has a white father but like his mother doesn't have free papers. As in Letters from a Slave Girl, his tale is told through his letters to family members and friends. At the start, in 1839, Joseph is nine years old and the letters reflect his lack of education; then he goes to school in Boston, becomes a printing apprentice, and heads to sea on a whaling bark, and his letters gradually become more literate. Joseph goes to California, hoping to get rich in the Gold Rush and win his family's freedom, and at the end, in 1852, he heads for Australia and the gold rush there. Throughout the course of his life, he wrestles with identity issues and with the evils of slavery and prejudice, and Lyons succeeds in making both Joseph and his era come alive for readers. An introduction and endnote See footnote. from the author, with an appendix of photos, will help YAs distinguish fiction from fact in this fine historical novel. Paula Rohrlick, KLIATT J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers. S--Recommended for senior high school students. |
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