From Midnight to Dawn: The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED] (Audio CD)

by Jacqueline Tobin (Author), Professor Richard Allen (Reader), Hettie Jones (Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Popular and familiar as the escape-to-Canada image is, little attention has been paid to the lives of the more than 30,000 blacks—some born free, others self-emancipated—who found refuge there. Tobin's highly readable account traces the 19th-century communities in Canada West (today's Ontario), from the first organized black settlement led by a group from Cincinnati in 1829 to the "largest and most successful" one, established in 1849. Biographical sketches of these " 'trans-border citizens, whose lives entwined with both countries" enhance the local history. Among them are well-known fugitives who dropped out of American history as their lives continued in Canada (Anthony Burns, William Parker, Henry Bibb) and major figures whose Canadian sojourn is often buried (William Wells Brown visited; Harriet Tubman made St. Catharines her home for six years). There's an enlightening portrait of Josiah Henson (the model for Stowe's Uncle Tom) as a political activist, a fascinating look at the pioneering journalist and early feminist Mary Ann Shadd and an intriguing section on the deep "Canadian connection to Harpers Ferry," as John Brown meets with the fugitives in Chatham. Accessible and fluidly written, the book will appeal to general readers. (Jan. 16)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
In the mid-nineteenth century, the city of Detroit bore the code name Midnight on the Underground Railroad. Its sister city of Windsor, Ontario, was code-named Dawn. Tobin tells the story of the journey of slaves from Midnight to Dawn as they traveled to freedom in Canada and established settlements with churches, schools, businesses, farms, and factories to sustain themselves. Settlements by black freedmen date from as early as the Revolutionary War, when slaves joined the British in return for freedom. Tobin profiles individuals involved in the movement across the Detroit River, likened to the biblical Jordan River, from the famed Harriet Tubman to the lesser-known Mary Ann Shadd, William Parker, and Henry Bibb. She also profiles Nova Scotia, St. Catherines, and other Canadian settlements and the social forces that created them, maintained them, and, for some, later led to their demise. This is a fascinating look at the shared history of the abolitionist movement and development of freedmen settlements between the U.S and Canada. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged edition (January 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400133548
• ISBN-13: 978-1400133543
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,108,633 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched, well-written account of important history, March 18, 2008

By	armchairinterviews.com (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From Midnight to Dawn: The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad (Paperback)

Few people pursue the research level of Jacqueline L. Tobin in traveling, reading old papers, sifting through letters, discovering ancient pamphlets, and interviewing descendents. The information in From Midnight to Dawn is inestimable, and Tobin's description of the black journey from Midnight, Detroit's nickname, to the black Ontario settlement of Dawn is gripping.

Few Americans realize that the Underground Railroad's terminus was in Canada. Many believe it ran from the Deep South to Ohio and dispersed into thin air, leaving Uncle Tom's Cabin behind in Kentucky.

Tobin traces the lives of ex-slaves up though Cincinnati and the intolerable Black Laws, though the Fugitive Slave Act, up the Toledo-Cincinnati Canal, across Lake Erie, and into nearly the whole of Ontario Province. There, Uncle Tom's Cabin is made material in the home of freedman Josiah Henson, beaten so badly as a young slave that he could never raise his hands head high again. He and his family were welcomed to Canada and received by Queen Victoria at the 1851 London World's Fair. He was forced to display his abolitionist materials at the American table, but erected a sign stating he had fled to Canada in order to survive. The sign drew Victoria's attention and everyone else's eye and support. Henson lived to be a respected political activist and public speaker until his death at age 94.

Tobin's blacks are not caricatures, but people like our present neighbors and leaders that thought and spoke intelligently, even if they had not yet learned to read. Henson himself wrote an autobiography that Harriet Beecher Stowe consulted when writing Uncle Tom's Cabin. Abolitionist John Brown is discussed in detail, but so is Harper's Ferry and its sole survivor, a brave black man. Female black news editor Mary Shadd also is portrayed in depth.

Such material is not presented in classrooms. However, Tobin presents dozens of such chronicles expertly, with photos and maps created by the author.

All Americans, ages 12 - adult should read Midnight to Dawn and discover the real abusiveness of slavery and discrimination.

Armchair Interviews agrees.

5.0 out of 5 stars From Midnight to Dawn, August 31, 2008

By	Suzy Frtz "Suzy" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From Midnight to Dawn: The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad (Hardcover)

An excellent book about the little-publicized black settlements in southeastern Ontario, before the Civil War, along with bios. A must for anyone interested in the Underground Railroad.