Slavery Time When I Was Chillun [Paperback]

Belinda Hurmence (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

The voices of former slaves ring out in this unforgettable portrait of American history. Young readers meet 12 slaves men and women from mansions and plantations, tobacco and cotton groves and share their memories of good times and bad. Belinda Hurmence lets real people do the talking, revealing aspects of slavery rarely seen and their thoughts on what it really means to be free. Photos Ages 10 and up. Pub: 12/97. .

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gr. 8^-12. This disturbing collection of slave narratives raises as many questions about how we know history as it does about the atrocity of slavery and its aftermath. Hurmence has selected and edited 12 oral histories from the more than 2,000 recorded in 1936 for the Works Progress Administration of the Library of Congress. People in their eighties remember what it was like to be a child under slavery. They remember brutality, wrenching family separation, hard labor; some also remember kindly masters, happy times, and the security of food and shelter. But, as with all such interviews, how reliable are these accounts? How much do they reflect the subject's desire to please the interviewer? How much were they edited by the interviewer, who recorded with pencil and paper? Do they reflect the nostalgia of old people during the grinding poverty of the Great Depression and after a lifetime of struggle looking back to slavery? And why did Hurmence select these 12 and not others? She raises some of these issues in her introduction, which will stimulate classroom discussion, especially when compared with the very different accounts by younger, militant ex-slaves such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. Hazel Rochman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (December 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399231943
• ISBN-13: 978-0399231940
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #186,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Children's Books > History > United States > 1800s

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone, January 23, 2007

By 

ms gray "rebelle reader" (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slavery Time When I Was Chillun (Paperback)

The language made it tough to read but the message was very clear. Reading how those people actually felt as former slaves was very enlightening. They had been abused and oppressed for so many years and generations, they thought very little of themselves. As a black woman born and raised in Georgia, it explained a lot of the behavior still exhibited by the blacks and the whites of today. While these behaviors and attitudes are blatant in the south, they are prevalent in all areas of the USA.

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent content; ugly cover, August 11, 2010

By 

anglophile "LP" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Slavery Time When I Was Chillun (School & Library Binding)

Basically, the title says it all. I previously owned this book as a quality paperback; unfortunately, one of my students walked off with it and I had to replace it. The content -- first-person stories of life under slavery in the U.S., as recorded by writers working for the Writers Project in the 1930s -- is outstanding. However, aesthetics are important to me, too, and the cover on this hardbound copy (a tannish brown) is really ugly. I'm still looking for a high quality paperback to replace the one I lost.

4 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I can't believe I read the whole thing, February 28, 2004

By 

Qelilah Solomon "qelilahsolomon" (Statesboro, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slavery Time When I Was Chillun (Paperback)

I am the great grand daughter of a woman who was born in GA whose parents were slaves. She was born in the area of Cordele, GA. My great grand parents have a different view of slavery portrayed in the book. So much so that it was not long before the majority of that generation moved to Chicago.
But what is most unusual about this narrative is the swinging back and forth between dialect and American English by each single ex-slave. It makes me wonder if these words were said or added to the narrative.
"Others even attended plantation schools. 'Us had a white teacher, explains one slave,'and all he learned us slave children was just plain reading and writing."
Notice this educated person could not speak well. And then in the midst of the conversation after the word, 'us', perfect English is written down for the speech.
Someone should video record the ones who are near 100 so that the Jim Crow Narratives won't sound like this book. This book should be read with a grain of salt. And with discussion in a diverse group.
This reminds me of the refusal to believe in the Holocaust in Germany.