Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

Genre: non-fiction, memoir, African-American studies, Women studies
FTC Disclosure: bought from Barnes and Noble
Published: 1861
Pages: 229
Content: PG-13 for violence
Reading Challenges: Women Unbound Challenge, Black History Month Mini Reading Challenge


It's really surprising that this book was published in the late 1800s and by a black woman, no less! Yeah, for abolitionists! It was a terrorizing account of Harriet Jacobs experience as a slave in the American South and what she did to get to freedom and guarantee the freedom of her children. She was very heroic and went through so many things both physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Though, the account is tragic it ends with hope and inspiration.

It just kept hitting me that this was a true story...it took me awhile to get through it because of the theme. I feel it's important to remember our history so we can learn and thus make the world better. I highly recommend this one for any who have a love of history, especially the seedy side. Well, I recommend it for everyone...

Rating: 4/5

I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King Jr. by Michael Eric Dyson

Genre: nonfiction, African-American studies
FTC Disclosure: borrowed from library
Published: 2000
Pages: 416
Content: PG-13 for language and thematic elements
Reading Challenges: Black History Month Mini-Reading Challenge

This was a huge eye-opener for me on Martin Luther King, Jr. This book told his story warts and all. Dyson explores various aspects of Martin Luther King, Jr. in each chapter from his radical social democracy ideas, anti-Vietnam protests, to his plagiarism and multiple infidelities.

I felt Dyson got a bit preachy and his footnotes were really hard to follow and sometimes his commentary was all over the map, but overall I was overwhelmed by the true Dr. King! An amazing and complex person. I figured that was the case, but I really had no idea who he was and this book really opened that up for me.

Here are a few ideas from the book:

p.77 "Bottom line of any ideology for King was its effectiveness in analyzing and relieving human suffering...Democratic socialism...establish social justice by destroying poverty."

p. 132 "Like King, we should translate our beliefs about love into concrete action. Justice is what love sounds like when it speaks in public."

p. 136 "By acknowledging his warts, we might better understand his greatness."

p.141 "...King had a genius for knowing what intellectual and spiritual resources to bring together, and to know when such a fusion would make the most sense and the greatest impact on his hearers."

p.208 "...King's sexist beliefs were nurtured in a black religious culture that depended largely on the labor of poor and working-class and middle-class southern black women. These women infused black culture with spiritual fire and moral imagination. They also placed their enormous skills and talents at the disposal of the movement."

p.283 "Now why did Ronald Regan sign that bill? Could it be that Mr. Regan understood that the easiest way to get ride of martin Luther king, Jr. is to worship him? To honor him with a holiday that he never would have wanted. To celebrate his birth and his death, without committing ourselves to his vision and his love. It is easier to recognize a dead hero than to recognize and follow a living prophet. The best way to dismiss any challenge is to exalt and adore the empirical source through which the challenge has come."

p. 295 "But the holiday celebrations must move beyond the charismatic center of King's personality to emphasize the resistance movements of ordinary black folk in the sixties and still today."

p.305 "King meant nothing less than to change the wolrd. He was out to make America behave against its will in a way that is cherished by people who love each other enough that they argue and fight for what is right before they will tell lies and live in false peace...he is a hero who loved America so much that he became sold for a price. He is a hero who loved AMerica so much that he became full of rage and anger for our failing to treat the least to the best our nation can offer, whether that meant money or enough space to live without cramped ambitions or stunted hopes."

"Martin Luther King, Jr. is the greatest American in our history because in his life the contradictory meanings of American democracy found a perfect and healing embodiment...King's genius was the willingness to risk everything he was--a preacher, a leader, a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a black man--to make America all that it could become...He freed the American black soul to love its black self and, hence, to love itself wholly and universally. He embraced the best of America and made it better."

Dyson just says it all much better than me. Check it out, you'll be blown away!

Rating: 4.5/5

Challenge update: This is my own mini-challenge and I've completed two out of four! I wanted to finish them by the end of February, but that obviously didn't happen so my new goal is for the end of March!

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Genre: young adult, historical fiction, slavery, Revolutionary War
FTC Disclosure: bought from Dragons and Fairy Tales
Published: 2008
Pages: 300
Content: PG for violence and war
Reading Challenges: Women Unbound, A to Z Challenge (Title C), 2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge, Black History Month mini reading challenge

One Line Summary: Which side to join? The patriots or loyalists when one is a slave.

I liked this book. It was a little slow to start with but picked up towards the middle. We follow slave Isabel and her little sister Ruth from the death of mother and her mistress to being illegally sold to a Loyalist family in New York.

Isabel reaches New York just a couple of months before independence is declared in July of 1776. Her goal is to survive long enough to escape with her sister back to her home of Rhode Island. But now she's caught between to wars and oppressors vieing for her loyalty. Her only friend is fellow slave Curzon whose master is a Patriot. She agrees to spy on her master in order to gain her freedom.

This was a great introduction for early teens/preteens to get into historical fiction and slavery. Things move along at a pretty fast rate and lots of information is thrown in too. But as an adult I found it a bit too simplified and not enough character development. I wanted to know more about Isabel, but Anderson just didn't share enough. I wanted more details, etc. But like I said it's a great intro for kids into this material. And it opens up plenty of discussion about the Revolutionary War and slavery so that's always a good thing.

I picked this one up for my book club; it was my turn to pick a book and thought this would be a great one for Black History month and since the main character is a woman I also felt it would go right along with my Women Unbound Challenge as well.

Rating: 3.5/5

MLK & Black History Month Mini Reading Challenge

I would like to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Black History month by reading some related materials.

My list includes: 

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.



I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. by Michael Eric Dyson

Dyson peels away the superficial image of King the man to reveal a complex human being whose work was far from finished or totally understood. "In the last thirty years we have trapped King in romantic images or frozen his legacy in worship," he writes. "I seek to rescue King from his admirers and deliver him from his foes." To that end, Dyson takes aim at neoconservatives like Shelby Steele, who spin King's multiracial dreams into a right-wing call to end affirmative action, and goes after black militants who thought King was "soft" and overlooked the power of his "black radical Christianity." He also criticizes the government's co-opting of King's philosophy in a holiday, as well as what he calls the King family's well-meaning, but destructive, attempts to protect King's legacy. Dyson forces us to accept King for all of his faults--including plagiarism and womanizing--but more importantly allows us to see a real human being who rose to the height of humanity. --Eugene Holley, Jr.

Yes, I am co opting the holiday of Martin Luther and Black History month for my own nefarious ends. But that's why I'm reading this book, to help open up my eyes and see King as he was and how he would want to be remembered.


Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

This autobiographical account by a former slave is one of the few extant narratives written by a woman. Written and published in 1861, it delivers a powerful portrayal of the brutality of slave life. Jacobs speaks frankly of her master's abuse and her eventual escape, in a tale of dauntless spirit and faith.

A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. Edited by James M. Washington










I may add a few more, but for now this is a good start...granted I won't be able to read all of the writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. but I hope to get a good sampling in!

This challenge is really for myself to keep me motivated and accountable and a place to ramble about my discoveries...but feel free to join in if you want to and grab the button and link back here. This will run through til the end of February! Wish me luck!