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Bryan turns a document appraising the value of a plantation owners property--including slaves--into a beautiful collection of poems celebrating each of the individuals listed on the document. He gives them names, ages, and jobs--and memories, relationships, and dreams. It is a powerful reminder that slaves weren't just statistics but real people with histories and personalities.
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Mrs. Mary Fairchilds is widowed and is moving back home to England to feel safe from stories she's heard of slave revolts. She is putting her eleven slaves up for auction. Through a series of poems, Ashley Bryan lets these slaves tell their stories. Bryan gives voice to the slaves and their connections to each other, inner thoughts, and dreams of freedom. I was fascinated to learn that Bryan pulled this information from actual 1828 slave auction documents. This made me even more sad as these sla
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Jan 27, 2017
Melliecup
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