Uncle Tom, Topsy, Sambo, Simon Legree, little Eva: their names are American bywords, and all of them are characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe's remarkable novel of the pre-Civil War South. Uncle Tom's Cabin was revolutionary in 1852 for its passionate indictment of slavery and for its presentation of Tom, "a man of humanity," as the first black hero in American fiction. Labeled racist and condescending by some contemporary critics, it remains a shocking,...

After fleeing the plantation where they were enslaved, siblings Ada and Homer discover the secret community of Freewater, and work with freeborn Sanzi to protect their new home from the encroaching dangers of the outside world.

In 1860 Louisiana, eighty-year-old Madame Sylvie decides to sit for a portrait, as horrific stories that span generations from the big house and the fields are revealed.

Imani, an African grasshopper, brings music to the new world when he travels aboard a slave ship.

Separated from his friend Isabel after their daring escape from slavery, fifteen-year-old Curzon serves as a free man in the Continental Army at Valley Forge until he and Isabel are thrown together again, as slaves once more.

The Spanish slavers came first, later the soldiers forced the Navajos of the Canyon to join their Indian brothers on the devastation long march to Fort Sumner; through the eyes of Bright Morning, a young Navajo girl, we see what can happen to human beings when they are uprooted from the life they know.

"In 1845, Sammy, a Chinese American girl, and Annamae, an African American slave girl, disguise themselves as boys and travel on the Oregon Trail to California from Missouri"--

Quilt making has been passed down through eight generations of Soonie's family. Messages were carefully stitched into each quilt, called a Show Way, mapping the family's journey from slavery to the present day.

When Iliona's ship is boarded by pirates, she ends up in Rome as a slave. Separated from her brother, Apollo, Iliona is soon at the whim of her owners, and the chance of regaining freedom seems like a distant dream. Iliona's life as a slave isn't as bad as she feared: her new family provides clothing, food, and even schooling, and best of all, she is free to explore the wonders of Rome.

"Kamet, a secretary and slave to his Mede master, has the ambition and the means to become one of the most powerful people in the Empire. But with a whispered warning the future he envisioned is wrenched away, and he is forced onto a very different path"--