Martha and the Slave Catchers

Gr 6–10—Martha Bartlett lives in an abolitionist household in Liberty Falls, CT. Her parents, Micah and Sarah, are agents of the Underground Railroad. When a pregnant runaway slave named Mariah gives birth and dies in their attic, they name the boy Jake and take him in while keeping his origins a secret. Martha resents Jake at first but grows to love him as her brother. Seven years later, Jake is kidnapped by two slave catchers at the behest of their employer, Robert Dawes, and taken to his plantation in Maryland after the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Martha sets out on an Underground Railroad mission to rescue him from slavery—a different world that she clandestinely reads about in her father's abolitionist periodicals. A startling discovery changes the direction of her life. Alonso and Zunon have both done a masterful job bringing America's pre-Civil War years to the page. Readers will sit in suspense as Martha risks her life in the Underground Railroad network. There are mentions of famed abolitionists like Lucretia Mott, Harriet Tubman, and Lyman Ward Beecher; other figures highlight the diversity within the abolitionist movement. The mention of Native Americans does not specify tribe or tribes. The loose ends in this slave narrative leave the door open to a sequel.