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Ann PetryA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Harriet soon misses her family and decides to return to help them escape as soon as she can. It is 1849, and Harriet gets a job working as a hotel cook. She hates indoor work but stays for one year, saving as much money as possible. Harriet feels out of place in Philadelphia, a busy city with many other fugitive slaves, and she often feels homesick for her family’s cabin. Harriet seeks information from the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, a group that helps fugitive slaves by offering them money, clothes, food, and train tickets. Harriet frequently visits the Committee’s offices to listen to William Still speak, a free Black man and the secretary of the Committee. Still’s stories reinvigorate her desire to help more slaves reach freedom in the North.
Meanwhile, in Maryland, Harriet’s brother-in-law, a free Black man, has learned that his wife Mary and their children will be sold and asks for help from a Quaker friend, who informs the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee. The Underground Railroad “conductors” do not use the postal system; instead, they pass messages from person to person, always using their code words to avoid detection. The Committee agrees that a boat will be ready to transport the family from Cambridge, Maryland, to Baltimore, where they will continue their way north.
By Ann Petry
African American Literature
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American Civil War
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Books on U.S. History
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Books that Teach Empathy
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Diverse Voices (Middle Grade)
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Family
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Fiction with Strong Female Protagonists
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Inspiring Biographies
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Juvenile Literature
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Women's Studies
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