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In the Upper Country / by Thomas, Kai,author.;
"Young Lensinda Martin is a protegee of a crusading Black journalist and activist in mid-18th century southwestern Ontario, finding a home in a community founded by veterans of the War of 1812 and refugees from the slave-owning states of the American south--whose agents do not always stay on their side of the border. One night, a neighbouring farmer summons Lensinda after a slave hunter is shot dead on his land by an old woman recently arrived via the Underground Railroad. When the old woman, whose name is Cash, refuses to flee before the authorities arrive, the farmer urges Lensinda to gather testimony from her before Cash is condemned. But Cash doesn't want to confess--instead she proposes a barter: A story for a story. And so begins an extraordinary exchange of life stories that reveal the interwoven history of Canada and the United States; of Indigenous peoples from a wide swath of what is called North America and the Black men and women brought here into slavery and their free descendents on both sides of the border. As Cash's time runs out, Lensinda realizes she knows far less than she believed, not only about the complicated tapestry of her people's ancestry, but also of her own family history. And it seems that Cash may carry a secret that could shape Lensinda's destiny. Moving from Virginia to Kentucky, from Montreal to Indigenous communities on the shores of the Great Lakes and Black communties in southern Ontario and a fictionalized version of Owen Sound, these two women's life stories weave together love, tragedy, and survival, to map their own unexpected interconnections onto the history of North America in an entirely new and resonant way."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Slavery;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The exiles : a novel / by Kline, Christina Baker,1964-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Seduced by her employer's son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to 'the land beyond the seas,' Van Diemen's Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land. During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel--a skilled midwife and herbalist--is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Exile (Punishment); Women; Female friendship; Penal colonies;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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All we were promised : a novel / by Lattimore, Ashton,author.;
"The paths of three young Black women in pre-Civil War Philadelphia unexpectedly -- and dangerously -- collide in this dramatic debut novel inspired by the explosive history of a city at war with itself. Philadelphia, 1837. When nineteen-year-old Charlotte escaped from the deteriorating White Oaks plantation four years ago, she'd expected freedom to look completely different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. Instead, she's locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, hiding their past and identities to protect themselves from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives. Charlotte longs to break away, but outside the walls of their townhouse, the City of Brotherly Love is up in arms. Pennsylvania is a free state, yet abolitionists are struggling to establish a permanent home for the anti-slavery movement, as southern sympathizers incite violence against free Black people and white vigilantes stalk the streets. Undeterred, Charlotte sneaks out and forges an unlikely friendship with Nell, a member of one of Philadelphia's wealthiest Black families. Nell is under so much pressure from her parents to settle down and marry Alex, a close family friend, that the two pretend to get engaged, just to take the heat off. Meanwhile Nell and Charlotte grow close over their mutual commitment to abolition, so when Evie, Charlotte's enslaved friend from White Oaks, shows up in the city, they conspire to help her flee North. Charlotte and her father's freedom is threatened as she and Nell navigate the abolitionist world's racial and class politics and ever-present dangers, struggling to forge a plan to free Evie from slavery before it's too late. Inspired by the untold history of Pennsylvania Hall, one of Philadelphia's landmarks lost to violence, All We Were Promised is the story of three young Black women -- the rebel, the socialite, and the fugitive -- fighting for each other in an American city straining to live up to its loftiest ideals"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Abolitionists; Fugitive slaves; Slavery;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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This World Is Not My Own. by Stillwell, Marquise,film director.; Ringbom, Petter,film director.; Aduba, Uzo,actor.; Juno Films (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Uzo AdubaOriginally produced by Juno Films in 2023.Beginning with her birthday July 4, 1900, artist Nellie Mae Rowe’s life spanned the 20th century. For most of her life, Nellie made art in obscurity, propelled by a force she viewed as a God-given gift. As the daughter of a sharecropper and former slave, she made art from whatever she could find. As an adult, she transformed her home into her “Playhouse,” an imaginative oasis filled with vibrant drawings, handmade sculptures and dolls, and collected objects. Six years before her death, a wealthy gallerist, Judith Alexander, “discovered” and introduced her work to the art world.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Art.; Arts.; Experimental films.; Documentary films.; Artists.; Art, American.; Women artists.; African American artists.; Art and architecture.;
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Flags on the bayou [sound recording] : a novel / by Burke, James Lee,1936-author.; Simon & Schuster Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by James Lee Burke, MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, Marin Ireland, January LaVoy, Ray Porter."In the fall of 1863, the Union Army is in control of the Mississippi River. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate Army is in disarray, corrupt structures are falling apart, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous. Wade Lufkin, haunted by what he observed --and did--as a surgeon on the battlefield, has returned to his uncle's plantation to convalesce, where he becomes enraptured by Hannah."--
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Thrillers (Fiction); Civil war; Enslaved persons; Fugitive slaves; Man-woman relationships; Murder; Slavery;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The girl with the louding voice : a novel / by Daré, Abi,author.;
"A powerful, emotional debut novel told in the unforgettable voice of a young Nigerian woman who is trapped in a life of servitude but determined to get an education so that she can escape and choose her own future. Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. This, her mother has told her, is the only way to get a "louding voice"-the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But instead, Adunni's father sells her to be the third wife of a local man who is eager for her to bear him a son and heir. When Adunni runs away to the city, hoping to make a better life, she finds that the only other option before her is servitude to a wealthy family. As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless slave, Adunni is told, by words and deeds, that she is nothing. But while misfortunes might muffle her voice for a time, they cannot mute it. And when she realizes that she must stand up not only for herself, but for other girls, for the ones who came before her and were lost, and for the next girls, who will inevitably follow; she finds the resolve to speak, however she can-in a whisper, in song, in broken English-until she is heard"--
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Young women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The blueprint : a novel / by Rashad, Rae Giana,author.;
"Solenne Bonet is DoS--a Descendant of Slave--and has always known that her destiny would be in the service of men. At school, it is what she has been trained for, waiting for an algorithm to assign her to a white man, one of the thousands who sign up to be contract holders. She knows that there are girls who hope to be more than Maid or Mammy, who whisper about how they will get a white man to sign their freedom, how they will be sweet, but not sweet enough that he would be tempted to keep her for good. After her mother pulls strings to get Solenne an assignment as a Council archivist, Solenne attracts the attention of Bastien LeBlanc, a high-ranking white government official and rising star in the Order. He promises to make Solenne his wife, and more importantly, to grant her freedom. She is flattered by his attention and entranced by Bastien's world of power and influence--even if it means ignoring Bastien's beliefs about the need to keep her fellow DoS under strict legislation. She convinces herself that his love is enough, that he will grant her freedom. Five years later, nothing has changed. Solenne is still with Bastien--his lover, his speechwriter, his possession. When he denies her the freedom he promised, she must decide whether to stay or run"--
Subjects: Dystopian fiction.; Novels.; African American women; Concubinage; Slavery;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Colosseum [videorecording] / by Beattie, Ian,1965-actor.; Cargill, Robert R.,1973-narrator.; Mariotti, Alexander,actor.; Reiné, Roel,television director.; Scott, Campbell,actor.; History Channel (Television network),production company,broadcaster.; Lions Gate Home Entertainment,publisher.;
Narrated by Robert R. Cargill ; Alexander Mariotti, Ian Beattie, Campbell Scott.This eight-part documentary vividly brings to life the rise and fall of the Roman Empire through the lens of one of the most exhilarating and brutal arenas in the history of humanity-the Colosseum. From the savage truth of a gladiator's life as a slave-warrior to the fascinating ways Rome's Emperors used the vast amphitheater to demonstrate total power, “Colosseum” offers a unique and personal look inside history's most iconic empire.14A.Subtitled for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH).DVD ; wide screen presentation ; Dolby Digital 2.0.
Subjects: Nonfiction television programs.; Historical television programs.; Television mini-series.; Television programs.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Commodus, Emperor of Rome, 161-192.; Colosseum (Rome, Italy); Church history; Gladiators.; Hand-to-hand fighting.; Human-animal relationships.; Women gladiators.;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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8 lives of a century-old trickster : a novel / by Lee, Mirinae,author.;
"Joining the acclaimed ranks of Pachinko and A Woman is No Man, a riveting and genre-bending debut of love and survival, set in the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. Life near the North Korean border is a zero-sum game, an ongoing battle in which you either win or you lose. This dangerous, shadowed netherworld is home to an unforgettable woman known only as the "trickster." Inspired by the story of Lee's great aunt, one of the oldest women to escape alone from North Korea, 8 Lives of a Century Old Trickster consists of eight dark and spellbinding chapters that follow this remarkable character and her family as they struggle to survive during the most turbulent times of modern Korean history. Mirinae Lee's trickster is a shapeshifter--throughout the course of these interconnected chapters she is a slave, an escape artist, a murderer, a terrorist, a spy, a lover, and a mother--a woman who must often choose the unthinkable to survive war and conquest in Korea. Her story is a beguiling, complex tale of love and survival that will keep you riveted--and speculating--until the very end thanks to Lee's brilliant talent for sleight of hand. A fascinating look at survival, trauma, and family, 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster is an incredible literary debut from a bright new talent."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; War fiction.; Novels.; Betrayal; Deception; Interpersonal relations; Korean War, 1950-1953; Nursing homes; Older people; Retirement communities; Survival; Tricksters; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The undertaker's assistant / by Skenandore, Amanda,author.;
"The dead can't hurt you. Only the living can." Effie Jones, a former slave who escaped to the Union side as a child, knows the truth of her words. Taken in by an army surgeon and his wife during the War, she learned to read and write, to tolerate the sight of blood and broken bodies-and to forget what is too painful to bear. Now a young freedwoman, she has returned south to New Orleans and earns her living as an embalmer, her steady hand and skillful incisions compensating for her white employer's shortcomings. Tall and serious, Effie keeps her distance from the other girls in her boarding house, holding tight to the satisfaction she finds in her work. But despite her reticence, two encounters--with a charismatic state legislator named Samson Greene, and a beautiful young Creole, Adeline--introduce her to new worlds of protests and activism, of soirees and social ambition. Effie decides to seek out the past she has blocked from her memory and try to trace her kin. As her hopes are tested by betrayal, and New Orleans grapples with violence and growing racial turmoil, Effie faces loss and heartache, but also a chance to finally find her place.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Bildungsromans.; African American women political activists; Undertakers and undertaking;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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