Orem Library

Documents the rise of the United States during the nineteenth century, from the end of the Mexican-American War to Reconstruction, the displacement of the Indians, and the transformation of a confederation into one nation.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner relates the dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom.

Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to write three versions of his autobiography over the course of his lifetime and publish his own newspaper. By the Civil War and during Reconstruction, Douglass became the most famed and widely traveled orator in the nation;...

Frederick Douglass was a self-educated slave in the South who grew up to become an icon. He was a leader of the abolitionist movement, a celebrated writer, an esteemed speaker, and a social reformer, proving that, as he said, "Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."

If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad answers all of kids' most important questions about the Underground Railroad.

David Brion Davis is one of the foremost historians of our time, and in this final volume in his monumental trilogy on slavery in Western culture he offers highly original, authoritative, and penetrating insight into what slavery and emancipation meant to Americans. He explores how the Haitian revolution terrified and inspired white and black Americans respectively, and offers a commanding analysis of the complex and misunderstood significance of...

As his bride, Lucie, was about to be "sold down the river" to the slave markets of New Orleans in 1831, young Thornton Blackburn planned a daring escape from Louisville. Discovered by slave catchers in Michigan, they were slated to return to Kentucky in chains, until the black community rallied to their cause in the Blackburn Riot of 1833. The couple was spirited across the river to Canada, but Michigan's governor demanded their extradition. The Blackburn...

"The remarkable and inspiring story of William Still, an unknown abolitionist who dedicated his life to managing a critical section of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia--the free state directly north of the Mason-Dixon line--helping hundreds of people escape from slavery"-- "Born free in 1821 to two parents who had been enslaved, William Still was drawn to antislavery work from a young age. Hired as a clerk at the Anti-Slavery office in Philadelphia...

Nat Turner is a literate American slave and preacher. His financially strained owner accepts an offer to use Nat's preaching to subdue unruly slaves. But as Nat witnesses countless atrocities, he orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.