by Julius Lester
|
| List Price: | $7.99 |
| Amazon Price: | $7.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $2.75 |
| Availablitiy: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
 |
|
Product Description
On March 2 and 3, 1859, the largest auction of slaves in American history took place in Savannah, Georgia. More than 400 slaves were sold. On the first day of the auction, the skies darkened and torrential rain began falling. The rain continued throughout the two days, stopping only when the auction had ended. The simultaneity of the rain storm with the auction led to these two days being called "the weeping time." Master storyteller Julius Lester has taken this footnote of history and created the crowning achievement of his literary career. Julius Lester tells the story of several characters including Emma, a slave owned by Pierce Butler and caretaker of his two daughters, and Pierce, a man with a mounting gambling debt and household to protect. Emma wants to teach his daughters-one who opposes slavery and one who supports it-to have kind hearts. Meanwhile, in a desperate bid to survive, Pierce decides to cash in his "assets" and host the largest slave auction in American history. And on that day, the skies open up and weep endlessly on the proceedings below. Using the multiple voices of enslaved Africans and their owners, Julius Lester has taken a little-known, all-true event in American history and transformed it into a heartbreaking and powerfully dramatic epic on slavery, and the struggle to affirm humanity in the midst of it.
Customers who bought this item also bought
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Amazing and outstanding!, 2008-12-08
This novel is filled with emotions. It is an amazing story with some historical fact at least in events that actually happened. It is now a great novel to show the progress of our country over the years. I will be sharing this with family and friends!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Loss Made Concrete, 2008-04-14
It is easy to forget the personal voice of violence, private and collective. It is even easier to distance oneself in dates, place names, and events. - this number of human cargo shipped to that port, the price that could be gotten for a "prime" young man, the political and societal arguments swirling around the economics and morality of the slave trade.
Day of Tears strips away all defenses and makes the listener or reader come face to face with the terrible loss of losing a beloved and becoming lost to loved ones. Parents were torn from their children. Husbands were wrenched from their wives. No photographs to hang in a place of honor and remembrance. No letters to cherish and serve as the voice of memory. Once the loved one, family member or not, was bought and began the journey to the new plantation, he or she was as good as dead, but worse - those left behind or carried off to a different place by a different owner knew that the loved one still lived, still struggled to survive.
Available as an audiobook, it is well worth the effort to track it down in this form. Although marketed to school-age audiences, it does not read as geared for that audience. Excellent for classroom use as an opening to a discussion on the realities of slavery. Characters are powerfully developed, presenting the variety of survival responses to an inhuman existence. Rather than simple caricatures of the different positions on slavery common at that time, even the accusation of being an "Uncle Tom" is no longer relevant. Highly recommended.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
profound and poetic, 2007-08-23
I read this book to understand what my daughter had been assigned to report on. And since I've read it, I am so excited to have discovered a truly gifted author who has many more books I can explore.
Normally, I don't like dark stories about slavery because of how difficult it is to experience the senseless cruelty of it. This story truly illustrated that cruelty. However, the dialog format allows you to get more absorbed in a "conversation" than just experiencing a painful piece of history.
Lester explains that he wrote the book to give voice to those "who did not have an opportunity to tell it for themselves." Because history only tells of this incredibly large slave auction and the details of the white slave owners and sellers, Lester fills in the details of the experiences of the slaves during this incredible event and after.
I loved how he allowed us to peak into the minds, emotions and motives of parties from all sides: the slave owners, the southern people absorbed in the slave culture, the slaves, both old and young, as well as those who disagreed with slavery and how they walked out their beliefs. And just when you were reading an account of a "villain" or a some other character whose views you disagree with, Lester would hit you with a profound, provocative statement that would transcends all social, economic, or others barriers and speak to any human condition, compelling you to take stock of where you really are on your own "road to independence."
This book is no easy read though it is a fast read. It confronts you with the consequences of institutionalized hatred, ignorance and greed. It also forces the reader to search his or her own heart to discover what part they play in their own contemporary environment of backwardness and to open one's eyes to the residual effects of this often "forgotten" institution of slavery.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Confusing and Sad, 2007-07-30
This is NOT what I expected--I expected an actual story of slaves and their experiances but instead it is a book of a Play told in story form, where it gets confusing and frustrating trying to piece together who goes with whom. The author also leaves you hanging in the end--the final chapter starts out as if there is more then suddenly it ends and is over--nothing more. Many threads were left untied and hanging and those that weren't were short and not too sweet--very confusing but great on historical facts aside those which were also short not much to this book and certainly not worth buying--borrow it from the library instead.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Review by Marcus, 2007-05-29
Day Of Tears by Julius Lester is about slavery in the mid 1800s and how slaves felt about getting sold off at a slave auction. The book is also in dialogue. The characters in the book reminisce about their experiences with the slave trade, and what happened on the day of the auction, and also how they are feeling.
The book was very interesting. I think its good enough to read. It really shows how the slaves were feeling about having an owner, for example they didn't like getting sold off to mean owners.
Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.
|
Store Categories
|