No More Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance [Paperback]

True vignettes and traditional verse, set against starkly powerful images, tell the story of enslaved Africans in America as it has never been told before.

A man who cannot swim leaps off a slave ship into the dark water. A girl defies the law by secretly learning to read and write. A future abolitionist regains his will to live by fighting off his captor with his bare hands: I will not let you use me like a brute any longer, Frederick Douglass vows. Drawing from authentic accounts, here is a chronology of resistance in all its forms: comical trickster tales about outwitting Old Marsa ; secret hush harbors where Africans instill Christian worship with their own rituals; and spirituals such as Go Down Moses, whose coded lyrics signal not just hope for deliverance, but an active call to escape. 

Boldly illustrated with extraordinary oil paintings by award-winning artist Shane W. Evans, and meticulously researched by Doreen Rappaport, this stunning collection — spanning the period from the early days of slavery to the Emancipation Proclamation — is an invaluable resource for teachers, parents, libraries, students, and people everywhere who care about what it means to be free, what it is to be human. Back matter includes important dates, a bibliography, resources for further information, and an index. From the moment they were forcibly taken from their families, Africans resisted the enslavement of their bodies and their spirits. On slave ships some Africans refused to eat. Some jumped overboard, choosing death over slavery. Mutinies happened so often that slave traders bought insurance to cover their losses in case of a slave rebellion.

The Story of Peppel
Peppel breathes in the fresh air above the deck. How good it feels to stretch without heavy chains on his legs and hands. If only he could stay up here forever. But no. "Down you go again," a sailor barks. Peppel and the other seven captiveslƒg