Long Journey Home was written by Julius Lester in 1972. This book has won many awards such as National Book Award Finalist, School Library Journal, Best Books List, and the Library of Congress Children's Books of the Year List. Long Journey Home is a collection of six short stories that deal with slavery and African Americans.
The first story, Satan On My Track, is about a blues singer that refuses to settle down and travels from place to place. Louis and Ben are two stories about slaves that escape using the Underground Railroad. The Man Who Was a Horse was about a patient black cowboy who could wrangle a herd of wild mustangs by himself. When Freedom Comes is about the emancipation of slaves and the aftermath. Long Journey Home contains many different facts about slavery.
Ben was my favorite story. For one it took place in Kentucky and described the beautiful scenery of Kentucky. It was a story about a lawyer from Chicago named David who was courting a woman, Samantha, who lived on a Kentucky plantation similar to the one in Gone with the Wind. He would visit her often. A major difference between David and Samantha is that he did not agree with slavery and could never envision himself as a slave owner. As their relationship grew, Samantha’s family talked of David taking over the plantation when they got married. David did not wish to move to Kentucky or to be a slave owner.
The plantation was run by Samantha’s father and the head slave, Ben. Samantha and her brother, Albert, grew up with Ben and considered him as part of the family. All of the slaves respected Ben. When Samantha’s father died, Albert hired an overseer to be the head of the farm above Ben. The overseer treated the slaves badly. After receiving a bad beating from the overseer, Ben escaped. The plantation began to fall apart as slaves ran away and didn’t care about the plantation or family. Samantha and David married and moved to Chicago. Samantha could not bear to stay there any longer. The mansion was soon burned down during the war.
Julius Lester has been writing since 1965. He has written forty-three books. A major theme found in many of his books is slavery of African Americans. Lester is not one that stays with a certain genre. He has written many autobiographical, fiction, folk tales, history, non-fiction, picture, and poetry and photography books. He has even written an instruction book on how to play a twelve string guitar.
The first story, Satan On My Track, is about a blues singer that refuses to settle down and travels from place to place. Louis and Ben are two stories about slaves that escape using the Underground Railroad. The Man Who Was a Horse was about a patient black cowboy who could wrangle a herd of wild mustangs by himself. When Freedom Comes is about the emancipation of slaves and the aftermath. Long Journey Home contains many different facts about slavery.
Ben was my favorite story. For one it took place in Kentucky and described the beautiful scenery of Kentucky. It was a story about a lawyer from Chicago named David who was courting a woman, Samantha, who lived on a Kentucky plantation similar to the one in Gone with the Wind. He would visit her often. A major difference between David and Samantha is that he did not agree with slavery and could never envision himself as a slave owner. As their relationship grew, Samantha’s family talked of David taking over the plantation when they got married. David did not wish to move to Kentucky or to be a slave owner.
The plantation was run by Samantha’s father and the head slave, Ben. Samantha and her brother, Albert, grew up with Ben and considered him as part of the family. All of the slaves respected Ben. When Samantha’s father died, Albert hired an overseer to be the head of the farm above Ben. The overseer treated the slaves badly. After receiving a bad beating from the overseer, Ben escaped. The plantation began to fall apart as slaves ran away and didn’t care about the plantation or family. Samantha and David married and moved to Chicago. Samantha could not bear to stay there any longer. The mansion was soon burned down during the war.
Julius Lester has been writing since 1965. He has written forty-three books. A major theme found in many of his books is slavery of African Americans. Lester is not one that stays with a certain genre. He has written many autobiographical, fiction, folk tales, history, non-fiction, picture, and poetry and photography books. He has even written an instruction book on how to play a twelve string guitar.
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