No More! Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance

Book – Non-fiction. By Doreen Rappaport. Illustrated by Shane W. Evans. 2005. 64 pages.
Picture book for upper elementary/middle school on the many forms of resistance to slavery.

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Using true accounts, author Doreen Rappaport puts readers in the shoes of 11 extraordinary individuals and documents the many forms of slave resistance: subversion, uprisings, escape, poetry, religion, and song.

“Weaving together first-person accounts by familiar historical figures, traditional black spirituals and vignettes featuring fictional composites of actual people, Rappaport (Freedom River) creates an affecting, multitextured chronicle of slavery in America. Throughout, the author underscores the courage, resilience and resolve of those held captive. Writing in the present tense, Rappaport brings an immediacy to such events as the failed attempt by a group of Africans to revolt against their captors during the Middle Passage; Frederick Douglass’s bold defiance of his vicious master; and the daring work of John Scobell, a runaway slave who became a Union spy during the Civil War. Interspersed with anecdotes of specific historical incidents are passages affording glimpses of the captives’ daily lives, as in descriptions of “hush harbors,” spots deep in the woods where they met clandestinely to worship; and the secret schools at which black children learned to read and write. The symbolic and realistic converge effectively in Evans’ (Osceola) often emotion-charged oil paintings, which capture both the pain and the triumph at the heart of this trenchant compilation.” Publishers Weekly

Published by Candlewick Press.

ISBN: 076362876X