Numbering all the Bones

Day of Tears by Julius Lester (2005)

Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue is a young adult book of historical fiction written by Julius Lester and published in 2005. It was the 2006 winner of the Coretta Scott King Award as well as numerous other YA awards. The book concerns the largest slave auction in American history, which took place on March 2 and 3, 1859, in Savannah, Georgia. Plantation owner Pierce Butler sells more than 400 persons to repay his gambling debt. In a blend of fiction and history, the book deals with this event and the repercussions of the slave auction, mostly concerning the sale of Emma, a slave on the Butler and later the Henfield plantations. Prior to her sale, Emma is the primary caretaker of the Butler children. The book, written entirely in dialogue, alternates between the perspectives of slaves, abolitionists, and slave owners alike. All characters take part in the narration, although Emma receives the most time and narrative space as the main character. 

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Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (2007)

Elijah of Buxton is a middle-grade novel by American writer Christopher Paul Curtis. Set in the 1850s, it follows 11-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first freeborn child of Buxton, a Canadian settlement of escaped slaves, as he makes a dangerous journey into the United States. The novel was a Newbery Honor Book and won the Coretta Scott King Award.

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Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (2008)

Laurie Halse Anderson's middle-grade novel Chains, a National Book Award finalist and Scott O’Dell Historical Fiction Award winner, is the first installment in her Seeds of America series. The historical fiction, set in 18th-century New York City, follows a young Black girl on her journey to escape slavery while the sparks of the colonists’ rebellion gradually ignite the American Revolution. The protagonist, 13-year-old Isabel Finch, narrates her search for identity while caring for her sister and living at the estate of a despotic slave holder. When Isabel reluctantly becomes a spy for the Continental Army, she faces danger at every turn. With her new friend Curzon and courage summoned from her ancestors, she traverses the upheaval of war as the sisters’ future hangs in the balance. The author anchors her narrative in history, beginning each chapter with an epigraph selected from historical documents, poetry, and letters from the era. The novel explores the importance of family, the nature of freedom, and the courage needed for pursuing that freedom.

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Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson (2010)

Forge tells the story of Curzon Smith, a runaway slave who enlists in the Colonial Army during the American Revolution. A sequel to Anderson’s previous book, Chains, Forge begins in earnest after Curzon has been abandoned by Isabel, a fellow slave who has freed him from captivity at the end of the previous novel.

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Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson (2016)

Ashes is the third and final book in the Seeds of America series. The story follows Isabel Gardener and Curzon Smith, two Black teenagers who escaped slavery during the American Revolution. They have been on the run together for five years. After serving at Valley Forge, they’re travelling through the Eastern states, looking for Isabel’s little sister Ruth, who was sold away from Isabel when the two were only children.

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (1845)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an autobiography by Frederick Douglass that was first published in 1845. Douglass escaped from slavery in 1838 and became a prominent abolitionist, orator, and writer. His autobiography describes his experiences under slavery and his eventual freedom. The book was widely read and influenced public opinion in favor of the abolition of slavery. It remains one of the most read memoirs from the Antebellum period.

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Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup (1853)

Twelve Years a Slave is a memoir by Solomon Northup, a Black man who was born free in New York and kidnapped by two men who sold him into slavery. Northup spent 12 years as a slave in the Deep South, encountering slave markets in Washington, DC and New Orleans and working on numerous cotton and sugar plantations throughout Louisiana. Northup narrated his memoir to American lawyer and writer David Wilson, who then edited Northup’s accounts into a manuscript.

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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs (1861)

The memoir Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an account of the life of Harriet Ann Jacobs, who calls herself “Linda Brent” in the narrative. Written in the tradition 18th-century writer Olaudah Equiano, Jacobs’s work joins that of her American contemporaries and fellow anti-slavery activists Solomon Northrup and Frederick Douglass. It is a key text for understanding the conditions of the lives of the enslaved in the Southern United States in the 19th century.

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Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops: Late 1st S.C. Volunteers by Susie King Taylor (2021)

Taylor’s autobiography details a Black woman’s work in the contraband camps and among Black Union soldiers during the Civil War. Taylor also founded a school for Black children afterwards.