Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson's Flight from Slavery

This wonderfully written book is both educational and heartbreaking. It shines a spotlight on a very disturbing and troublesome time in American history when slaves were kept and exploited by their slave owners. The story centres around the Edmonson family and their unrelenting struggle to have both parents and their fourteen children become free men and women. It takes place in 1848 and Emily, along with her five siblings and seventy other enslaved people get on board the Pearl in the Pontomac River in Washington D.C. hoping beyond hope to flee their dismal and futureless lives and reach liberty. Unfortunately, within a day the boat is tracked down and seized and those on board are taken as prisoners once again. The six family members are rounded up and whisked off to New Orleans to be sold. Helpless and feeling totally hopeless Emily and her sister Mary are trapped and unable to escape. They are saved from utter despair and domination by a break out of yellow fever forcing them to be returned to Virginia. Eventually they are ransomed by the unrelenting concern, determination and love of their parents and abolitionists, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, who later uses th