Adler, David A. (1992). A picture book of Harriet Tubman. New York, NY: Holiday House.
Are facts and often-related incidents from Tubman's life are presented in brief vignettes. The book includes a description of her as a slave child being whipped for stealing a lump of sugar; as a young woman receiving a serious head wound while intervening between a master and his runaway slave; as an escaped slave and conductor on the Underground Railroad; and a nurse and spy during the Civil War. (Picture Book)
Adler, David A. (1994). A picture book of Sojourner Truth. New York, NY: Holiday House.
This detailed picture book tells the story of Sojourner Truth. Born into slavery with the name of Isabella, she joined a religious community called the “Kingdom of God,” after she was freed. She spoke out on religious issues, the evils of slavery, and the rights of women. (Biography)
Armstrong, Jennifer (1992). Steal away. New York, NY: Orchard Books.
This is the true story of two 13 year-old girls in the spring of 1855. Bethlehem, a black slave, was given to Susannah, a white orphan, as a present from her aunt. Susannah did not believe in slavery and grew very close with Bethlehem because they both could not remember their parents. The story is told by the two girls forty-one years later, of their trek to be free of the South. (Biography/Multicultural)
Ayres, Katherine. (2001). Stealing south. New York: Dell Yearling.
For years Will and his family have been part of the Underground Railroad, sheltering and transporting escaped slaves through Ohio. He is ready to leave Atwater, Ohio, and start a life of his own as a peddler seeking his fortune. Until a runaway slave asks Will to help steal his older brother and sister from a Kentucky plantation to keep them from being sold into the hard life slavery. This is when Will, who is only 16, changes his plan and begins his adventure to the south. As he travels south he encounters kind and generous people who own slaves and discovers people are not always what they seem. He becomes torn between doing what he thought was right and stealing slaves from these people who own slaves and entrusted him. In the end, he decides to provide the means to escape for these slaves by carrying them as cargo to freedom. (Multicultural/Historical Fiction)
Benson, Kathleen & James Haskins. (2002). Following freedom’s star: the story of the
Underground Railroad. New York: Benchmark Books.
In this account by James Haskins, the lives of two slaves, Harriet Jacobs from Edenton, NC, and John Parker from Norfolk, VA, provides the faces for the many who escaped slavery on the secretive route to freedom. (Informational/Multicultural)
Bial, Raymond. (1995). The Underground Railroad. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
A book composed of passed down stories and photographs of the Underground Railroad. It was important to visit these places, not just to make photographs but to stand on the very ground of the slave cabins where men, women, and children were held in bondage, to gaze on the courthouse yard where human beings were auctioned off to the highest bidder, to wander through the antebellum homes that served as “stations” on the Underground Railroad where fugitives were hidden from bounty hunters.
(Informational)
Burns, Bree (1992). Harriet Tubman and the fight against slavery. United States: Chelsea House
Publishers.
This book is about the life of Harriet Tubman. It focuses on her being born into slavery and having a rebellious reputation. She often refused to obey her owners and eventually escaped north to Philadelphia. She risked her life many times to help other slaves escape through the Underground Railroad. She was often known as Moses as a sign of respect. (Biography)
Ferris, Jeri. (1988). Go free or die: a story about Harriet Tubman. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda
Books, Inc.
The author presents all the pertinent facts about her subjects, but in a narrative framework that includes invented dialogue, attributed emotions, and selective highlighting of events. It makes for interesting, readable stories that still contain enough information for reports. (Multicultural)
Guccione, Leslie Davis (1995). Come morning. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
Twelve-year-old Freedom Newcastle wants to help his father, a freed slave, with his work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. He feels he is a man and wants to help his father who denies his request. When his father gets taken prisoner by slave hunters, he is force to take over his father’s work. He has the lives of an entire family in his hands as he fights to save his father. (Historical Fiction)
Hamilton, Virginia. (1968). The house of dies drear. New York, NY: Collier Book.
Tells a story of a huge, old house with secret tunnels, a cantankerous caretaker, and buried treasure are a dream-come-true for 13-year-old Thomas. As soon as his family moves in, Thomas senses something strange about the Civil War era house, which used to be a critical stop on the Underground Railroad. With the help of his father, he learns about the abolitionists and escaping slaves who kept the Underground Railroad running. While on his own, he explores the hidden passageways in and under the house, piecing clues together in an increasingly dangerous quest for the truth about the past. (Multicultural/Historical Fiction)
Hamilton, Virginia. (1996). Many thousand gone, African-Americans from slavery to freedom.
New York: First Scholastic Printing.
Grade 4-9-- From the beginning of slavery in America to the end of the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of slaves escaped to freedom in the Northern U. S. and Canada. Their struggle, as well as the struggle of those who failed and those who were once free and then captured into slavery, comprises the theme of this history. Hamilton offers brief vignettes of almost three dozen figures. Among them are a prince lured to a neighboring kingdom and sold into slavery and a desperate mother whose escape over an icy river inspired a scene in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Well-known figures are included, as are such lesser-known people as Henry Box Brown, who had a sympathetic carpenter, nail him into a box and mail him north; or Tice Davids, whose escape in 1831 led to the coining of the term "underground road." Although the emphasis is on African-American figures, biographies of whites who risked prison to help slaves to freedom are also included. The vignettes are lively, readable, and written with a poetic flair that distinguishes this book from most collective biographies for this age range. All of the stories shed a different light upon Hamilton's themes and the factual information she presents as an introduction to each theme. Her research is impeccable. The Dillons' black-and-white illustrations are refreshingly original, conveying the emotion and drama of the experiences described; text and visuals combine to create a powerful and moving whole. Reluctant readers and those with little prior knowledge will find this book unusually approachable with its short chapters, lively writing, and ample white space. (Informational/Poetry)
Hopkinson, Deborah and James E. Ransome. (2002). Under the quilt of night. New York: Simon
& Schuster.
Under the quilt of night a young slave girl leads her loved ones away from the slave master who worked them: "hoeing and picking, / mending and sewing, / till my hands got raw." In this striking companion to Deborah Hopkinson and James Ransome's Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, Hopkinson uses the rhythm of verse to echo the drumming of the slaves' feet as they travel along the Underground Railroad in pre-Civil War times. Ransome's oil painting illustrations are rich with the purple hues of night, and fraught with the tense emotions of the men, women, and children trying to escape--and those helping them. Over the course of the story, the deep purple gradually lightens, as the sun begins to rise and the slaves approach freedom. The final illustration is a veritable sunburst of brilliant orange and yellow. (Historical Fiction)
Johnson, Ann Donegan. (1979). The value of helping: the story of Harriet Tubman. La Jolla,
California: Value Communications, Inc.
This book describes the helpful work of Harriet Tubman in aiding slaves to flee the South, in assisting the Union army during the Civil War, and in establishing homes for the old and needy after the war. (Picture Book/Historical Fiction)
Kay, Elizabeth. (1997). Harriet Tubman: Americans of character. San Diego: Young People’s
Press.
This book is about the “Six Pillars of Character.” Each section of this book includes a drawing of a pillar. Above each pillar is a word. These words, six in all, name the most important traits that a person of good character has. Harriet Tubman is compared by each pillar. (Picture book/Biography)
Kelton, Nancy. (1977). Rebel slave. New York: Raintree Publishers Ltd.
This book is a biography of Harriet Tubman. It begins with depicting Harriet as a young child describing her activities as she grew up. The story tells about her young life as she grows up on a plantation. Harriet encounters many people in this book that help her make the decision to escape the plantation. This young slave’s cruel experiences in the South lead her to seek freedom in the North for herself and others. After escaping she decides it’s not enough for only her to be free and she continues to make trips to help others seek the freedom she found. (Biography)
*Lester, Julius. (2000). To be a slave. New York: Puffin Books.
What was it like to be a slave? Listen to the words and learn about the lives of countless slaves and ex-slaves, telling about their enforced journey from Africa to the United States, their work in the fields and houses of their owners, and their passion for freedom. You will never look at life in the same way again. (Biography)
McClard, Megan (1991). Harriet Tubman: slavery and the underground railroad. New Jersey:
Silver Burdett Press.
Is a series that brings the nation’s most tragic and turbulent era to life by following the personal stories of its most prominent participants. Through this biography you will learn of the courageous efforts of women whom rose from slave beginnings to become a heroic figure in the Underground Railroad. (Biography)
McGovern, Ann (1965). Runaway slave, the story of Harriet Tubman.
New York, NY: Scholastic Magazines, Inc.
This short biography of the life of Harriet Tubman tells an intimate story of her dreams of escaping through the Underground Railroad and how this dream came true. It retells how she not only ran away, but continued to risk her life to help free other slaves. (Biography)
McGovern, Ann (1965). "Wanted dead or alive," the true story of Harriet
Tubman: New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.
The story of a baby named Araminta, born into slavery, tells of the dreams and accomplishments of Harriet Tubman. When she was young, she was called Minty. As she aged she was known as Harriet. After helping hundreds of slaves escape through the Underground Railroad, people started calling her Moses. Harriet Tubman was one of the most influential people in the success of the Underground Railroad and will always be recognized as a hero. (Biography)
McKissack, Patricia C. (1997). A picture of freedom: the diary of Clotee, a slave girl. New York:
Scholastic, Inc.
Clotee is an orphan living on the plantation of "Mas' Henley" and "Miz Lilly." Her owners have put her to work fanning Miz Lilly and her young son William during tutoring sessions. William may not be keen to learn, but Clotee is. She has learned to read while looking over the boy's shoulder and eventually she teaches herself how to write. She practices her newfound skills by writing in a makeshift, secret diary, which is found by William's new tutor. Luckily, he turns out to be an abolitionist. Through his work, Clotee helps some of her friends escape to the North, but she herself chooses to stay behind on the plantation as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Clotee is such a vibrant, fully rounded character that it is almost painful to think of her left on the plantation while her friends and fellow slaves go to freedom. (Multicultural/Historical Fiction)
McMullan, Kate. (1991). The story of Harriet Tubman, conductor of the underground railroad.
New York: Parachute Press, Inc.
A slave from birth, Harriet Tubman knew she was meant to be free. From the time she was a small child; Harriet was forced to work in the fields and was treated harshly by her owner. Finally, leaving her family behind, she ran away to the North. But her own freedom wasn’t enough. She wanted to lead others to freedom. Harriet became a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, returning south again and again to rescue over 300 slaves. Harriet Tubman’s heroism is an inspiration to people around the world. (Biography)
Monjo, F.N. (1970). The drinking gourd. New York: Harper and Row.
This book is about a family of four trying to escape the unbearable torture of slavery. They are traveling north, following the drinking gourd (big dipper), to Canada. The story begins with them hiding out in a preacher’s barn waiting for the preacher to return home so he can take them across the river. However, Tommy, the preacher’s son finds them first. He talks with them and discovers a lot about the Underground Railroad and “the drinking gourd”. When the preacher returns home he and Tommy carry the slaves to the river in their hay covered wagon. When they reach the river Tommy’s father leaves Tommy and the hidden slaves to get a boat for the slaves. Just as the slaves are about to escape U.S. marshals ride up looking for the runaway slaves. Thankfully Tommy’s quick thinking diverts the marshals and they ride away not knowing the runaway slaves were inside the preacher and Tommy’s wagon. (Historical Fiction)