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  Underground Railroad to Mexico...

  Editors Charles River

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  The Underground Railroad is one of the most taught topics to young schoolchildren, and every American is familiar with the idea of fugitive slaves escaping to Canada and the North with the help of determined abolitionists and even former escaped slaves like Harriet Tubman. The secrecy involved in the Underground Railroad made it one of the most mysterious aspects of the mid-19th century in America, to the extent that claims spread that 100,000 slaves had escaped via the Underground Railroad. Of course, from a practical standpoint, the Underground Railroad had to remain covert not only for the sake of thousands of slaves, but for a small army of men and women of every race, religion and economic class who put themselves in peril on an ongoing basis throughout the first half of the 19th century, and in the years leading up to the war.  
  	Over 150 years later, that same secrecy has helped the Underground Railroad become so romanticized and mythologized that people often visualize it in ways that were far different from reality. Before the American Civil War eliminated slavery, it was a fixture in North America for over 200 years, and by 1850 a trained slave was worth approximately $2,500, around 10 times the sum of a typical annual salary in that day. As a result, the economic dependence on slavery in the South was an extreme one, and in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act, black people in the North were under constant pressure to defend their “credentials” to bounty hunters and owners. Between the value of slaves in America, rising abolitionist sentiment at home and overseas, and political debates promoting or hindering the movement toward equality, the era in which the Underground Railroad operated cannot be easily fit into a concise body of principles, actions or geography. 

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  Bright Eyes-A Memoir - Surviving...

  Bridey Thelen-Heidel

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  Fans of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died will root for Bridey Thelen-Heidel as she struggles to unshackle herself from her mother’s chaos in this triumphant debut memoir. 
  Bridey is tethered to her mom’s addiction to dangerous men who park their Harley-Davidsons in the house and kick holes in all their doors. Raised to be her mother’s keeper, rescuer, and punching bag, Bridey gets used to stuffing her life into black trash bags, hauling them between Alaska and California, and changing schools every time her mom moves in a new monster—or runs away from one. Desperately seeking the normal life she’s observed in sitcoms and her friends’ families, Bridey earns her way into a fancy, private college, where she tries to forget who she is—until her mom calls with a threat that drops Bridey to her knees. Watching doctors and police interrogate her mother at the hospital, Bridey realizes her mom has become a monster herself . . . and she doesn’t want to be saved. 
  But Bridey does. 
  Bright Eyes is about the indomitable spirit of a young girl forced to be brave, required to be resilient, and conditioned to be optimistic, and how she ultimately uses the same traits that helped her to survive her mother’s chaos to create her own happily-ever-after.

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  Larry Simply Larry - The story...

  Elias Masilela

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  Larry – Simply Larry tells the story of Fr Larry McDonnell, an inspiring Irish Salesian Priest and the Headmaster of Salesian High School in Manzini, Swaziland. For more than two decades, Larry was instrumental in the growth and development of hundreds of Swazi boys, as well as many from South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe who sought refuge in Swaziland during the apartheid era. Many of the boys whose lives he touched, directly and indirectly, are now prominent policy, political and business leaders in South Africa and the region. He also played a crucial, though largely unsung, role in the liberation of South Africa. Salesian was also an academic refuge for many South African, Namibian and Zimbabwean teachers. At various times the school harboured operatives of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), Swapo and the PAC; such as Stanley Mabizela and General Keith Mokoape of MK – a most recent Luthuli Awardee in Silver, both ANC; Arthur Pickering of Swapo as well as Rosette ‘RB’ Nziba and Dini Sobukwe of PAC, respectively. The key period in this account is from 1970, when Larry arrived at the School, to the mid-1990s, following his tenure as Headmaster and his retirement to technical education. As a deeply religious person, caught up in struggle politics while trying to give the boys, in his care, the best possible start in life. Larry’s roots in the Irish struggle for liberation from British rule and in the trauma of the 19th-century Potato Crisis, gave him an acute consciousness of South Africa’s liberation process. See more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0796101345.

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  Davy Crockett - Ever Westward

  Janet Benge, Geoff Benge

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  David's father stood beside the stone chimney and spoke to his son. "It's time to grow up, lad," he said. "Mr. Siler has hired you to go to Virginia with him. He's run ragged trying to keep the cattle with him, and he needs a young 'un with strong legs and keen eyes to help him out. Better hitch the wagon and say your good-byes." Growing up in Greene County, Tennessee, Davy Crockett's education came from the toil of hard labor. Working as a farm hand and wagon driver, he learned about the people and the land of the West -- and he was captivated. The untamed wilderness, the sound of wild animals, and the roar of the river would be his destiny. One of America's best-known folk heroes, Crockett served as a frontiersman, a scout, a soldier, and a politician in the U.S. Congress. He died defending the Alamo, a steadfast citizen and heroic leader to the very end.

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  The Tainos - Rise and Decline of...

  Irving Rouse

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  Drawing on archeological and ethno-historical evidence, Irving Rouse sketches a picture of the Tainos—the first people Columbus encountered when he arrived in the Americas—as they existed during the time of Columbus, contrasting their customs with those of their neighbors. He then moves backward in time to the ancestors of the Tainos—two successive groups who settled the West Indies and who are known to archeologists as the Saladoid peoples and the Ostionoid peoples. By reconstructing the development of these groups and studying their interaction with other groups during the centuries before Columbus, Rouse shows precisely who the Tainos were. He vividly recounts Columbus's four voyages, the events of the European contact, and the early Spanish views of the Tainos, particularly their art and religion. The narration shows that the Tainos did not long survive the advent of Columbus. Weakened by forced labor, malnutrition, and diseases introduced by the foreigners, and dispersed by migration and intermarriage, they ceased to exist as a separate population group. 
   
   
   
  As Rouse discusses the Tainos' contributions to the Spaniards—from Indian corn, tobacco, and rubber balls to art, artifacts, and new words—we realize that their effect on Western civilization, brief through their contact, was an important and lasting one.

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  The Black Promise Land -...

  Tashlultum

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  In this heart-warming story, we follow the story of a loving father who, on the eve of his son's wedding, gifts him an acre of land - a symbolic gesture that sparks a captivating exploration into the rich tapestry of African American history and the quest for liberation and prosperity. 
  As the father and son stand on the lush acre, the father recounts the persistent legacies of resilience and hope forged by their ancestors in the face of adversity. The characters engage in profound conversations about the promises of "forty acres and a mule" and the Biblical tale of the Israelites' journey to the Promised Land, drawing powerful parallels that span generations and cultures. 
  As the story unfolds, the father soberly reflects on the historical injustices and land dispossession experienced by African Americans, highlighting the importance of landownership as a path to economic autonomy, vibrant health, and intergenerational wealth. Together, they rekindle the entrepreneurial spirit and determination that has long coursed through the veins of Black America, propelled by the belief that freedom and prosperity can only be fully realized once every family owns at least a piece of land, free from debt. 
  Through the intimate exchanges between father and son, their bond transcending time, "The Black Promise Land: A Father's Gift and a Legacy Reclaimed" inspires readers to embrace their roots, tap into the collective resilience that shapes African American history, and forge a new chapter of landownership and prosperity for themselves and generations to come. As the story culminates with the son stepping forward into married life, armed with the knowledge of his ancestral wisdom and an acre of promise, the reader is left with a renewed sense of purpose, determination, and hope for a brighter future.

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