She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Title:  She Came to Slay

Author: Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Read by:  Robin Miles with a Note Read by The Author

Publisher: Simon & Shuster Audio

Length: Approximately 3 hours and 53 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Shuster Audio.  Thank-you!

My kids picked to listen to She Came to Slay:  The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman on a recent family road trip.  It was a book that we were all interested in from parents to the youngest at nine years old.  Luckily, the audiobook lived up to its promise and was one that we all enjoyed. 

She Came to Slay was written in an easy to understand manner that worked for our entire family to listen to.  There was one section that did discuss the rape of slaves, but it was tastefully written.  The book covered Tubman’s entire life from what is known about her ancestors, through her early years, her work as a conductor on the underground railroad, her work during the Civil War, and her later life.

One thing that really stood out to me was Harriet saying that if the myth of the benevolent slave owner was true, why had none of the escaped slaved she helped or lived near ever returned to slavery when times got tough in the north?    The other thing that really stood out to me was just how terribly Harriet was treated.  You wouldn’t treat an animal like that, let alone another human being.  It’s hard to understand how people could treat other people this way.  Harriet was forced to work when she was sick with the measles.  She was also forced to work in the field after a head injury with blood dripping down her face.  She was also beaten when trying to sit on a train with her veteran pass and for refusing to move to another car.  Who would beat an elderly veteran?

One item that has caused marital strife in the past between my husband Ben and myself is about whether Harriet Tubman should be on the $20 bill.  Ben believed that Tubman’s actions weren’t worthy of being on the $20 bill, but he seemed to change his mind as he listened to this autobiography.  There is more to Tubman’s story than what you briefly learn in school.

Narrator Robin Miles was interesting and kept the story moving.

Overall, She Came to Slay is a great biography of Harriet Tubman for the entire family to learn more about this amazing American hero.

Never Caught: The Story of Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong and Kathleen Van Cleve (Young Reader’s Edition)

Title: Never Caught: The Story of Ona Judge

Author: Erica Armstrong and Kathleen Van Cleve

Read by:  Robin Eller

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: Approximately 5 hours and 22 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster.  Thank-you!

You may know that George Washington, the father of our country, was a slave owner. What you may not know is that one of his slaves, Ona Judge, ran away while he was President and the Washingtons had a quest to recapture her spanning for years after she ran away.

This book is very straightforward on the fact that slavery was evil and has a good discussion about it at the beginning.  Basically, that people try to justify it with the benevolent slave owner myth, but it is just a myth.  People did not want to be enslaved.  I loved that this gives a deeper background for kids on the founding of our country.  We tend to give an over simplification of history to youth and leave out the details that may make our countries heroes look bad.  I think we should show that not everyone is perfect and that we have a complicated history as a country that causes many of the issues of today.

Ona’s story is fascinating, but sadly a lot of the book is really about George and Martha Washington and inferences they can made on the life of Ona based on the Washingtons’ movements.  That is sadly the case for most biographies about enslaved people.  I did like that there was more information about Ona after she was a free woman from interviews she gave later in life.

This is a Young Reader’s Edition of the book.  I was fascinated and want to read the adult version of the book.   Parents may want to know that although this is a middle grade reader’s edition, there is still some frank talk in the book that children may not be prepared for depending on where they are at learning the facts of life.  There is a discussion about whether Ona’s parents, a black slave woman and a white indentured man, were in love or whether it was rape.  The word rape is used and there is a bit of discussion about it in general without getting explicit.  I don’t think my 5^th grade son would know what was going on if he read that part of the book and it will lead to questions.  Just be aware.  It is an interesting discussion of African American women and the terrible situation they were put into. Later in the book it also references why a white man may buy a black woman a house and give it to her, but the wording is very coy so I think it would go past young readers.

It made me sad to realize that when an enslaved woman had a child even if it was with a free man, that child was still considered to be property of the woman’s owners.  This was the case for Ona herself and for her children after she married.  She had to always live with the fear that not only could she be captured, but her children could be taken into captivity as well.

The author really didn’t seem to like Martha Washington and seemed to think George was more willing to give slave’s freedom than Martha.  There didn’t seem to be any basis for this argument, but I’m assuming there may be letters or other documents backing up this assumption in the adult version of the book.

Robin Eller was a great narrator and I enjoyed listening to this audiobook on my commute.  I learned so many interesting things and it was fun to share what I learned with my husband, Dad, and friends.  I think this will be a future book to listen to on a family road trip.

Overall, Never Caught: The Story of Ona Judge is an important part of American history and is an enjoyable, informative audiobook.