On Slavery’s Border is a bottom-up examination of how slavery and slaveholding were influenced by both the geography and the scale of the slaveholding enterprise. Missouri’s strategic access to important waterways made it a key site at the periphery of the Atlantic world. By the time of statehood in 1821, people were moving there in large numbers, especially from the upper South, hoping to replicate the slave society they’d left behind. Diane Mutti Burke focuses on the Missouri counties located along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to investigate small-scale slavery at the level of the household and neighborhood. She examines such topics as small slaveholders’ child-rearing and fiscal strategies, the economics of slavery, relations between slaves and owners, the challenges faced by slave families, sociability among enslaved and free Missourians within rural neighborhoods, and the disintegration of slavery during the Civil War. Mutti Burke argues that economic and social factors gave Missouri slavery an especially intimate quality. Owners directly oversaw their slaves and lived in close proximity with them, sometimes in the same building. White Missourians believed this made for a milder version of bondage. Some slaves, who expressed fear of being sold further south, seemed to agree. Mutti Burke reveals, however, that while small slaveholding created some advantages for slaves, it also made them more vulnerable to abuse and interference in their personal lives. In a region with easy access to the free states, the perception that slavery was threatened spawned white anxiety, which frequently led to violent reassertions of supremacy.

Pathways around your home can be the most striking outdoor element, providing a visual and physical guide through your surroundings. Instead of settling for boring straight-line sidewalks, why not create your own geography with paths that add art to necessity! Let this lush visual resource for gardeners and garden designers inspire you with its 125 different paths that feature styles from very casual to natural trails to elegantly formal walkways. Do-it-yourself installation instructions cover materials, elements of design, each step of construction, and maintenance tips. The value of your home will increase, and so will the pleasure you receive from walking outdoors, as the ordinary activity of going from one place to another reveals your sense of beauty and character. A Selection of the Crafters Choice Book Club & the Homestyle Book Club.

Focuses on values and attitudes drawn from the Gospels and the literature of Christian spirituality to discover solutions to psychological problems. Father Benedict offers a series of therapeutic meditations for readers with an interest in spirituality.

Rama and her family, are forced to flee their once-peaceful village to escape the ravages of the civil war raging ever closer to their home With only what they can carry on their backs, Rama and her mother, father, grandfather and brother, Sami, set out to walk to freedom in Europe. This unique picture book was inspired by the stone artwork of Syrian artist Nizar Ali Badr, discovered by chance by Canadian children’s writer Margriet Ruurs. The author was immediately impressed by the strong narrative quality of Mr. Badr’s work, and, using many of Mr. Badr’s already-created pieces, she set out to create a story about the Syrian refugee crisis. Orca Book Publishers is pleased to offer this book as a dual-language (English and Arabic) edition.