Gr. 4-7. When Hannah Brown, the granddaughter of an abolitionist in slave-holding Northern Virginia, begins corresponding with Sarah Smith, a girl who attended boarding school near Hannah's farm but has returned home to Pennsylvania, Hannah discusses her reservations about her grandfather's abolitionist activities. Sarah, whose parents are Underground Railroad "conductors" in Pennsylvania, gently encourages Hannah to rethink her beliefs, and gradually Hannah becomes involved in the abolitionist cause. Together, the two Quaker girls assist a South Carolina slave family to escape to Canada. While the family hides in Hannah's barn, Hannah teaches the daughter to read and write, which saves the slave girl's life en route. Characterizations are thin and the girls' voices sound too similar, but background details are plentiful, and children will come away with a general sense of the abolition movement. Steer those who want more to
Freedom Roads: Searching for the Underground Railroad (2003) by Joyce Hansen and Gary McGowan and to Doreen Rappaport's
No More! Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance (2002), which better demonstrate the role of the African Americans themselves.
Shelley Townsend-HudsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
From the Back Cover
The Liberty Letters series explores the lives of teens that courageously lived out their faith and commitment to God in challenging times. Using letters between good friends to tell the story, the series reveals the power of friendship, courage, ingenuity, and faith to make a difference in the key events of U.S. history.
In this book, two Quaker girls, Hannah Brown, granddaughter of the most active abolitionist in slave-holding Northern Virginia, corresponds with Sarah Smith, daughter of "conductors" on the Underground Railroad in the free state of Pennsylvania. Together, the girls assist a runaway South Carolina slave family on their perilous trip from Virginia to Canada on the "freedom train."
Liberty Letters is a tribute to Americas foundation of faith and freedom. And now, a new generation can experience history as they discover how God works through ordinary people in extraordinary times.
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