Like historical fiction? Then try Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon & Schuster, 2008). It looks at slavery from a different vantage point, that of the American Revolutionary War.
With their mother dead and their father sold long ago, thirteen year old Isabel and her younger sister Ruth are slaves at the mercy of their mistress in Rhode Island. Although she promised to free the children after her death, their mistress’ greedy relative sells them to a cold, cruel family. They arrive with their new masters, the Locktons of New York, just prior to the city’s siege and occupation by the British. Since Isabel’s new master is a powerful and wealthy Loyalist, Isabel is asked to spy for the Patriots. She does this thinking that she will then be freed as a reward for her information.
But Isabel soon discovers that the principles of freedom, liberty, and justice that the Patriots speak of so fervently don’t apply to her. Isabel has to decide–should she support the Revolution?
The perspective in this book is fascinating. I often think of slavery as a “Southern thing,” forgetting how widespread it was in the North. In the appendix, Anderson points out that in 1771 New York was the second largest city in the American colonies (Philadelphia was the largest), and roughly 22% of the city’s population were black slaves. Slavery didn’t end in New York until 1827.
Anderson also does a great job, both in the novel and the appendix, showing the contrast between what the colonists said and what they did. At one point in the story Isabel (who has been taught to read) encounters Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. She learns “Americans had good cause to overthrow their British masters, a person born to wealth was not born to rule over others, and ’twas good and proper to fight injustice” (p. 262). She, of course, views these words in the context of her own enslavement. She is right to fight; she is right to try to escape.
Anderson also brings up many of the complexities of the slavery issue. Thomas Jefferson wrote that he abhorred slavery, yet he owned them. The British freed slaves of Patriots, but returned runaway slaves to their Loyalist masters. The young United States developed a patchwork of contradictory laws regarding slavery that came to a bitter head in the Civil War. Some might say that only now, in 2008 with the election of Barak Obama as president, have we really begun to embrace racial equality.
Chains has been nominated as a National Book Award Finalist (among other awards). Anderson’s other books have won numerous awards as well. In my local library, Chains is shelved under the “Teen Fiction” section, but I think the book is appropriate for younger children too.
