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Title details for From Midnight to Dawn by Hettie Jones - Available

From Midnight to Dawn

The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad

by Hettie Jones
Jacqueline L. Tobin
Audiobook
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The Underground Railroad was the passage to freedom for many slaves, but it was rife with dangers. While there were dedicated conductors and safe houses, there were also arduous nights in the mountains and days in threatening towns. For those who made it to Midnight, the code name given to Detroit, the Detroit River became their Jordan. And Canada became their "land of Canaan," the Promised Land where they could live freely in various black settlements under the protection of British law. One of these settlements was known as Dawn.
In prose rich in detail and imagery, From Midnight to Dawn presents compelling portraits of the men and women who established the Railroad and the people who traveled it to find new lives in Canada. Some of the figures are well known, like Harriet Tubman and John Brown. But there are equally heroic, less familiar figures here as well, like William Parker, who fought off a group of whites determined to reenslave him. Parker resettled in Canada, learned how to read and write, and recounted his story as a slave narrative.
From Midnight to Dawn evokes the turmoil and controversies of the time, including the furor over the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, congressional confrontations in Washington, and fierce disputes among black settlers in Canada over whether they should ask for money from abolitionists or strive to be self-supporting. An extraordinary examination of a part of American history, From Midnight to Dawn will captivate readers with its tales of hope and courage.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 30, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400123544
      • File size: 280471 KB
      • Duration: 09:44:18

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Much has been written about the Underground Railroad, including the author's previous book, the insightful Hidden in Plain View, about the role of quilts in helping slaves to escape. Less attention has been paid to the Canadian end of the escape routes, the focus of Tobin's new book. The title comes from escapees' reference to slavery as "midnight" and to a town of escaped slaves in Ontario called Dawn. Richard Allen is an able narrator. He is particularly adept at moving from the carefully modulated voice of the reader in the bulk of the text to the voices of escapees in quotations from letters and pamphlets. He never relies on stereotypes in the latter voices, giving each person character and grace. R.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 6, 2006
      Popular and familiar as the escape-to-Canada image is, little attention has been paid to the lives of the more than 30,000 blacks—some born free, others self-emancipated—who found refuge there. Tobin's highly readable account traces the 19th-century communities in Canada West (today's Ontario), from the first organized black settlement led by a group from Cincinnati in 1829 to the "largest and most successful" one, established in 1849. Biographical sketches of these " 'trans-border citizens, whose lives entwined with both countries" enhance the local history. Among them are well-known fugitives who dropped out of American history as their lives continued in Canada (Anthony Burns, William Parker, Henry Bibb) and major figures whose Canadian sojourn is often buried (William Wells Brown visited; Harriet Tubman made St. Catharines her home for six years). There's an enlightening portrait of Josiah Henson (the model for Stowe's Uncle Tom) as a political activist, a fascinating look at the pioneering journalist and early feminist Mary Ann Shadd and an intriguing section on the deep "Canadian connection to Harpers Ferry," as John Brown meets with the fugitives in Chatham. Accessible and fluidly written, the book will appeal to general readers.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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