Using Literature to Discuss Slavery in America: Caesar's Story by Joan Lowery Nixon

For one of my class assignments, I needed to create a multi-disciplinary unit (basically a unit for a certain grade that incorporates multiple subject areas).

I chose to do mine on colonial communities.  I used four of the Young American series books (Caesar's Story: 1759 is one of the books in the series put out by Colonial Williamsburg) as the basis to divide the class into four reading and research groups to discover the daily life of the colonies.

This story is from the point of view of Caesar who is a slave in Carter Grove's plantation.

When Caesar was young, his best friend, Nat, was the master's son.  However, at the age of seven, Caesar must take on the role of the slave, and Nat takes on the role of the master.

Caesar must learn that he is no longer able to play with his best friend, no longer able to tell a funny story.  He goes from being a field hand to being a house slave where, though he is on the same plantation, he cannot see his family even for a few minutes.

 Caesar was an actual person that lived.  The author pieced together the limited sources that Colonial Williamsburg provided of this boy's life to create this story and to replicate the feelings that a slave boy of this age might have felt.

Because there is such a limited written history from the perspective of slaves, this book gives a voice to a slave that before had none.

One of the things that often frustrates me when I read books or hear lessons about slavery is sugarcoating slavery to make it seem as if it were not that bad.

However, this book gives a fairly true portrayal of the hardships and difficulties of slaves, the daily struggles.  Caesar at one point even sees a slave auction, something that is rarely even mentioned in textbooks.

He experiences first hand what it means to not be free, to be someone's property.   Of the Young American book series that I read, I thought this one was the best written.  I would certainly recommend it for an upper elementary student and older.  However, the themes in this book are really not appropriate for a younger audience than upper elementary.