tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11824531.post7516543023468118657..comments2024-03-24T02:15:27.373-05:00Comments on Children's Literature Book Club: Newbery BuzzStephanie Fordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02860771061981553752noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11824531.post-78389804156127626442008-01-11T06:41:00.000-05:002008-01-11T06:41:00.000-05:00Hi Stephanie,It's my first time on your blog: I'm ...Hi Stephanie,<BR/>It's my first time on your blog: I'm following all the Newbery predictions I can find. I feel I should comment on the idea that seems to be coming up in a lot of places, that there are historical inaccuracies in Elijah of Buxton. I don't know what claims you are aware of: the main one that I know of is the idea that Kamau arrived relatively recently (evidence: his limited English and his cultural orientation), but the slave trade became illegal back in 1808. A preliminary search led me to the information in Grolier, Encyc. Americana and a thoroughly footnoted article in Wikipedia, which all agreed that enslaved people were brought into the US well into the 1850s. (Encyc. Americana figures are that there were 700,000 enslaved people in 1790, and more than 3 million in 1860: I've seen this figure estimated elsewhere at 4 million.) Just wanted to set the record straight.<BR/>I'm looking forward to the 14th too!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com