Twelve-year-old Ann Maria Weems works from sunup to sundown, wraps rags around her feet in the winter, and must do whatever her master or mistress orders--but she has something that many plantation slaves don't have. She has her wonderful family around her. To Ann, her teasing brothers, her older sister, and her protective and loving parents are everything. And then one day, they are gone. Separated from her family by her master and shipped off as a housemaid, Ann learns something about independence and about love before the opportunity for escape arrives. A white man risks his life for Ann, cuts her hair short, dresses her like a boy, and launches her on her journey on the Underground Railroad to Canada, her family, and finally to freedom. Until she was a teenager, Ann Maria Weems lived in the mid-1800s near the author's home in Maryland. This fictionalized account of her extraordinary life is ideal for students, teachers, and parents hungry for interesting and informative reading in African-American history and the Underground Railroad.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1 But what does this freedom really mean? In her book, Vivien Patterson describes a personal journey which spans many years. It involves overwhelming family tragedy and loss, but gradually leads her to discover the true nature of freedom. She believes that most of us misunderstand freedom and that frequently we chase after an impostor who masquerades in many forms, leaving us feeling cheated, disillusioned and trapped. However, true freedom she states implies being rescued. It is the most precious of all gifts offered by the Rescuer and an integral part of our inheritance in Christ. She sees this freedom as being linked implicitly with redemption, wholeness and well being. As we embrace it, we find we have the potential not only to honour God, but to be true to ourselves in all our relationships. This is the freedom she has discovered in Christ and this is her story.

Slavery, freedom, and kidnapping in the mid-Atlantic. This is the story of Thomas McCreary, a slave catcher from Cecil County, Maryland. Reviled by some, proclaimed a hero by others, he first drew public attention in the late 1840s for a career that peaked a few years after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Living and working as he did at the midpoint between Philadelphia, an important center for assisting fugitive slaves, and Baltimore, a major port in the slave trade, his story illustrates in raw detail the tensions that arose along the border between slavery and freedom just prior to the Civil War. McCreary and his community provide a framework to examine slave catching and kidnapping in the Baltimore-Wilmington-Philadelphia region and how those activities contributed to the nation’s political and visceral divide.

Why use Readers Theater in history classes? The format gives students a sense of involvement with the human dramas that make up history. Performers can feel the excitement as Archimedes discovers the displacement of water. They can relate to the terrors of a slave s passage from Africa to the Americas. They can imagine the tension of wading through the water at Omaha Beach as bullets strike their buddies. Each script (12 15 per book) is accompanied by background information, literature connections, extension activities, and discussion questions.

The Ten Commandments belong to the classics of Western culture. They are an authoritative part of the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures. Since they come to us from an ancient past, it is both necessary and worthwhile to inquire what they may mean for us today. Thorwald Lorenzen contends it is important to hear God's invitation to an alternative lifestyle: you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not covet. His thoughtful reflections on the commandments for today's tumultuous world begin with the God who speaks ten word to liberate God's people from oppression. Grounded in God's liberating yes, the ten words are neither laws nor rules. They are elements for a culture of freedom in which people are invited to celebrate life.

Encourage students to take an in-depth view of the people and events of specific eras of American history. Nonfiction reading comprehension is emphasized along with research, writing, critical thinking, working with maps, and more. Most titles include a Readers Theater.

Inspired by a true story, the riveting novel of a young slave girl's harrowing escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad. The moment Ann Maria Weems was born, her freedom was stolen from her. Like her family and the other slaves on the farm, Ann works from sunup to sundown and obeys the orders of her master. Then one day, Ann's family -- the only joy she knows -- is gone. Just 12 years old, Ann is overcome by grief, struggling to get through each day. And her only hope of stealing back her freedom and finding her family lies in a perilous journey: the Underground Railroad. Ann Maria Weems was an actual slave who lived in the mid-1800s near the author's home in Maryland.