Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth-Century America

Marking the milestones and millstones of the youthful years of enslaved blacks' lives on U.S. plantations in the 1800s, King (history, Michigan State Univ.) traces how those born into slavery grew old almost instantly, before their time, suffering atrocities akin to those of war-ravaged populations. She examines family, work, play, religion, punishment, and escape in a pioneering survey to assess our understanding of slavery from the experiences and perspectives of those under 21 years of age. As Deborah Gray White did in Ar'n't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South (LJ 11/15/85), King has here remapped old and familiar terrain to lay out promising directions for fresh inquiry. Highly recommended for collections on 19th-century U.S. history, children, slavery, and blacks.--Thomas J. Davis, SUNY at Buffalo