Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger

I placed this book on hold at my local library and could not wait to receive it. When I finally did receive it, I immediately began reading it. In Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation, John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger focus on the institution of slavery but from the perspective of the slave. This novel depicts the horrors that slaves regularly endured.

Although this a good book, I am having an extremely difficult time reading it because the details are GRAPHIC. One example about a pregnant slave is absolutely horrendous. Franklin and Schweninger write, “One overseer admitted that he tied a female slave’s hands, put her head down a steep hill, placed a log under her belly and administered several hundred lashes. He ‘whipped her so brutally’ that the woman, who was pregnant, miscarried and ‘was Seriously injured and disabled.'” 

To me, this disregard for human life is a disgrace on every level, and after reading about this incident, I just put down the book and began reading some lighter novels while still trying to read Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation. It finally got to the point that I made the decision to postpone reading this novel for now. However, my intent is to finish reading this book, just not right now.

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