Reviews for Slavery's end in Tennessee, 1861-1865

The average rating for Slavery's end in Tennessee, 1861-1865 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-01-13 00:00:00 William Birnie This is a non-fiction book about a fugitive slave who made his way to Boston. He was captured in Boston and taken into custody for return to enslavement, but a group of abolitionists stormed the courthouse and took him away, hid him on Beacon Hill, and shunted him via the underground railroad to Canada. President Millard Fillmore himself ordered an indictment against 9 Boston abolitionists, and a trial ensued. This is a wonderful story, very readable. The kind of book that makes you want to go to the present day scene and travel the paths described in the book. Which is what I did.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-11-15 00:00:00 Ma Rocio Herrera In reading about the history of slavery, one tends to forget the efforts some slaves made to be free rather than waiting for the Civil War. However, Gary Collison's book about Shadrach Minkins is a good reminder of just how difficult it was for slaves to escape the plantation and make a life for themselves in the North or in Canada. Collision does a great deal of research to illustrate not only the life of Shadrach Minkins' but also the struggles of many other slaves who wanted a better life. I was especially interested in his portrayal of how the Fugitive Slave Act worked in Boston and how many residents decided to actively resist the law and aid in the escape even at the risk of prison for themselves. It illustrated to me how some laws will be ignored when they run counter to moral principles of citizens. I was somewhat disappointed, however, that so many of the events in Minkins' life were speculated about by the author rather than being derived from records. Understandably that was not the author's fault but more attributed to the secrecy surrounding his life in the North.