Katie Dively asked Laila Ibrahim:

Where did you find the inspiration for Mattie's back story? I feel like there are so many historical fiction books that show what life was like in the higher society back then, but its fascinating to me what life was truly like for the slaves (and for less well-off families like the Johnson's) back then.

Laila Ibrahim Hello. Thanks for your curiosity. I read a lot of slave narratives such as The Bondswoman's narrative, Slave Narratives and Incidents of the Life of a Slave Girl. Also PBS had a great documentary: Slavery and the Making of America as well as information on their website. The library of congress has a lot of information. The best for me was interviews of former slaves in the 1930 that helped me with dialect as well as historical details. (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collectio...)

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