To Be a Slave

To Be a Slave is a nonfiction children’s book written by Julius Lester and published in 1968. In 1969, the book was named a John Newbery Honor Book in recognition of its important contribution to children’s literature.

The book focuses on the history of enslavement in the United States. Julius Lester compiled slave narratives and wrote his own historical commentary to accompany them. Lester was writing in the context of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In 1968—the same year To Be a Slave was published—Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Lester’s commitment to give a voice to enslaved people was part of a larger movement to balance the historical narrative, which was dominated by white historians.

The n-word is used throughout To Be a Slave. Lester explains that the word was a “brutal, violent word that stung the soul of the slave more than the whip did his back” (57). This study guide obscures the n-word with the use of asterisks when it appears in quoted text. The term “slave” is also used throughout the book. In summaries, Lester’s use of the term “slave” and “slaves” has been kept. In analysis portions of the guide, the term “enslaved people” is used to underscore the humanity of those who suffered under the system of enslavement.

Summary

In the author’s note, Lester explains the need for the recorded experiences of former slaves to be shared and describes the sources he used when writing the book. Throughout the book, Lester uses quotes from interviews with former slaves and adds his own commentary.

In the Prologue, Lester reviews the history of Africans being enslaved and taken to other parts of the world. He explains the development of slavery in the United States and notes that it was a particularly cruel system compared to slavery in other countries.

In the first chapter, Lester explains that enslaved people, although treated as subhuman, were fully human and experienced enslavement as human beings. Most enslaved people endured brutal treatment and were fully aware of the economic system behind their oppression.

The second chapter describes the details of buying, selling, and transporting of enslaved people within the United States. These people were brought to plantations to work; while a few worked in the enslaver’s home, most of them were forced to work long days as laborers in cotton fields. On plantations, people were kept enslaved by physical force and through brainwashing. The use of religion and language convinced some enslaved people of their inferiority. Many others, however, resisted enslavement through religion, language, and music.

Contrary to the belief in the historical “happy slave,” enslaved people sought freedom in the few ways available to them. Some escaped the plantation, some died by suicide, some retaliated with violence, some planned insurrections, and some simply refused to comply with their enslavers.

During the Civil War, many enslaved people fled to join the Union Army. When the institution of slavery was finally abolished, there was an initial rush of joy. This was short lived, however, as former slaves quickly found themselves economically dependent on former slave holders, oppressed by laws of racial segregation, and terrorized by white supremacists. In 1930s interviews, former slaves expressed the injustice they experienced and the bitterness they felt long after the end of slavery.