I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl

The vast majority of books dealing with slavery, including those in the Dear America series, take place during the actual period of slavery, from taking people from Africa to slavery during the Civil War. This book, however, deals with the time period just after the Civil War, when the slaves were "freed."

The book does an excellent job showing how that "freedom" was, at times, in name only. Patsy is a young slave on a farm when the war ends, and we see how things don't change much for some of the former slaves. On the other hand, we see how some of the people who were slaves leave their plantations, often to search for missing relatives.

The book explains how some Northern groups tried to set up things to help make the transition easier, including establishing schools for the children of the former slaves. To counter that, though, the book also covers the efforts of some people to try to keep the former slaves "in their place," including the use of the Black Codes.

The situation basically was that the Southern states wanted to keep the blacks under their control, forcing them into a status as near to slavery as they could, while the Northern government wanted the former slaves treated like other people (including the vote, but for men only, of course; the concept of "equal rights" didn't extend to women of any race.)

This is a really good book covering an often neglected period of U.S. history.

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