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Overcoming Slavery - Chains

            When I first began reading the book "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson I was not very interested, it was slow going and I had a difficult time getting into the story. However I suddenly got a spark of inspiration. This book began to pull me in and I would wake up excited to see what would happen next. The book begins with a girl named Isabel who lives on a farm with her little sister, Ruth. The two girls are slaves for a woman who passes away, their mother who visits from time to time also passes away. So after the death of their owner they are sent away on a cramped and dirty ship. When the ship docks the girls step off only to be sold again to a snooty woman named Lady Seymour, and her husband Elihu. Lady Seymour and her husband already had a slave but were in need of more. After they were sold they were immediately put to work. .
             When Isabel arrived in America she met a boy with a red hat named Curzon. Curzon escorted her to the water pump when she was told to fetch water, he gave Isabel the nickname of Country. Isabel was ordered to attend to Elihu and his friends who turned out to be traitors and were planning to kill General George Washington. They discussed their plans openly in front of Isabel believing that she wouldn't understand them. What they didn't know was that her mother had taught her how to read and write. She told Curzon because his owner is a kind of spy for Washington and his soldiers. The following day soldiers knocked on their door to look for evidence but all they found waiting for them was embarrassment. .
             After a few weeks have gone by they decide to assassinate Washington. They use one of the guards in their plan but the guard is caught and hung for his attempt. A couple of the men also died but Elihu escapes. Lady Seymour, who begged Elihu to take her with him beforehand, is devastated and misses him badly. One day as Isabel wakes she can't find Ruth anywhere.


Essays Related to Overcoming Slavery - Chains

1. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains teaches what one might call the capacity of human beings to suffer. The narrative novel presents middle students an understanding of "the harsh realities of northern slavery " (Bilski). ... Each incident brings forth the will to survive and overcome, and a new plan to free herself emerges "in her brainpan " (Anderson 214). ... Yet, she does not let slavery define her. ... This becomes the lesson emerging from Chains....

  • Word Count: 505
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Escaping From Slavery

Abraham Lincoln once said, "If Slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." ... When they were all captured, they were chained and shackled to the coast in a procession called a "coffle". ... The men were usually chained together or put into leg irons, and crammed as tightly into the hold as the captive dared. ... Many anti-slavery societies formed some with junior branches for children. ... After the slaves in the United States were freed, slavery b...

  • Word Count: 1826
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Let America be America Again

It was most likely written around the same time slavery ended in America. As the poem goes on it shows more and more the cruelty and hardships certain people would have had to experience in that time and how hard it was for these obstacles to be overcome. ... For example "the negro bearing slavery's scar" and "the red man driven from the land" and it also mentions "the immigrant clutching the hope I seek". ... The poem speaks of young men who dream of growing up and making their own profit but finding the world an "ancient endless chain of profit, power, gain, of grab the land"....

  • Word Count: 652
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Wheatley

She was constantly overcoming stepping-stones to prove her literary talents and ability. ... For example, just as Wheatley was brought into slavery from Africa as a child to America, so to Terence was sold into slavery at a young age and brought from Africa to Rome. ... It speaks of slavery as being a positive advancement for Africans. ... She writes, No more, America, in mournful strain Of wrongs, and grievances unredress'd complain, No longer shall thou dread the iron chain, Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand Had made, and with it meant t'enslave the land....

  • Word Count: 2218
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Racism/Feminism

The basis of slavery was the belief that black people were inferior to white people. ... Though his early education was the source of his torment, it is what levitated him to higher grounds, and eventually it is what freed him of his chains. Female discrimination has existed parallel to slavery, and has done much better in standing against time. ... Between Douglass and Steinem, a lot in terms of self discovery and determination to overcome obstacles in their lives are shared. ...

  • Word Count: 698
  • Approx Pages: 3

6. Huckleberry Finn is not a racist novel

At various points throughout the book, Jim is being locked up and chained, made to be the butt of Tom Sawyer's cruel pranks and basically being treated like an untamed beast. ... Whether friend or father, Huck realizes that Jim has feelings and value as a person and decides to risk "going to hell" to save Jim from being sent back to slavery. ... He endures, and he overcomes" she says. ... He faces many trials and tribulations and even with the "disadvantage" of being a black man, he is able to overcome this and become a successful, free man. ...

  • Word Count: 910
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Role Of Blacks In The Civil War

Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burned again by the yoke of slavery." ... Nearly 50,000 blacks chained side-by side were brought to America. ... Opponents of slavery, called Abolitionists, believed slavery was immoral and the Declaration of Independence should be applied to everyone, slaves as well as whites, that they might enjoy the rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (Hughes 40-42, Meltzer 79-84). ... Abolitionists encouraged President Lincoln that the abolition of slavery would be an effective war measure. ... The first battle the blacks troops ...

  • Word Count: 1436
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

8. African Americans and the Civil Rights Movement

Ever since the beginning of slavery, African Americans would sing praises and encouragement while working in the fields. ... Due to slavery in society everything all Negroes were able to do were limited. ...

  • Word Count: 2190
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography

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