Civil War Railroads

Jennifer Chiaverini's New York Times best-selling Elm Creek Quilt novels, with their irresistible blend of storytelling magic and quilting lore, have captured the hearts of countless fans. In this moving novel about morality, freedom, and the power of human courage, Chiaverini whisks listeners back to antebellum America.

Ruth’s beau died - simply because he was a slave.She is determined to help other enslaved people as she assists with the Underground Railroad. Recently freed and illiterate, Ruth is hired to bake mouth-watering delicious bread in a Philadelphia bakery. Her boss Joseph is kind, handsome, and determined to put an end to slavery. She feels emotionally connected to him as they work together for a common cause. His presence is like a fresh splash of spring rain on her parched soul. However, Joseph has plans. He’s determined to make some major changes in his life. He desperately wants to ...

Brought up amid the luxury of plantation life, Marianne Johnston never questions her sheltered life until, driven by her conscience, she joins the Underground Railroad. Soon Marianne is living a dangerous double life, helping slaves flee by night and acting the belle by day. And nothing is riskier than her attraction to wild, heartless young Southerner Yves Chamard - while being courted by his noble older brother.

Introducing "American History: The Legends that Shaped the USA" a riveting exploration of the rich and fascinating early history of the United States. This book takes you on a journey through the remarkable stories of American legends, from the birth of the country, through Westward expansion, wars, and political scandals. It delves into the lives of heroes, leaders, and presidents who played pivotal roles in shaping America's history, making it the great country it is today. Are you interested in exploring the rich and fascinating early history of the United States? This book takes you on ...

Nothing Like It in the World is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise comes to life. The U.S. government pitted two companies - the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads - against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. As its peak the work force approached the size of Civil War armies, with as many as 15,000 workers on each line. The surveyors, the men who picked the route, lived off buffalo, deer, and antelope.

Despite all we know about the Civil War, its causes, battles, characters, issues, impacts, and legacy, few books have explored Canada's role in the bloody conflict that claimed more than 600,000 lives. A surprising 20,000 Canadians went south to take up arms on both sides of the conflict, while thousands of enslaved people, draft dodgers, deserters, recruiters, plotters, and spies fled northward to take shelter in the attic that is Canada. Though many escaped slavery and found safety through the Underground Railroad, they were later joined by KKK members wanted for murder.

The focus of this selection concerns both the Federal and Confederate efforts to disable or maintain the railroads within the active theaters of the war. Real railroads of iron and steam and ribbons of steel vanishing into the horizon quickly became a strategic objective of both armies in the Civil War. Raiders and protectors were deployed both North and South. The damage inflicted on roadways and rolling stock was not always easy to accomplish.

In 1993, Jacqueline Tobin visited the Old Market Building in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, where craftspeople sell their wares. Amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts, Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams and the two struck up a conversation. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to tell a fascinating story that had been handed down from her mother and grandmother before her. As Tobin sat in rapt attention, Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad.

As a conductor for the Underground Railroad - the covert resistance network created to aid and protect slaves seeking freedom - William Still helped as many as 800 people escape enslavement. He also meticulously collected the letters, biographical sketches, arrival memos, and ransom notes of the escapees. The Underground Railroad Records is an archive of primary documents that trace the narrative arc of the greatest, most successful campaign of civil disobedience in American history.

At age six the sharp bite of a whip taught Harriet Tubman what it meant to be a slave. The other slaves scoffed when Harriet resolved to escape north someday. Little did they know that this girl would one day lead hundreds of slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Even huge rewards for her capture—dead or alive—did not stop Harriet from risking her life again and again in the fight for liberty as the nation spiraled into the Civil War.

This book is a work of historical fiction. It is a story of my great, great grandfather Clinton Price born a Georgia slave in 1814. Through a series of miracles, Clinton was able to keep his entire family together first in Georgia and then in Texas. Though we do not know his exact words, this book is a result of more than 25 years of research so that it's depiction of slave life is accurate to the last detail. You will better understand where they lived, what they wore, what they ate, their superstitions, how they spent their limited free time and how they cured their illnesses. Perhaps ...

At the young age of 13, Virginia Hensley is told the family secret. For nearly five years the farm she loves and feels safe at has been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Virginia’s parents request that she help in the dangerous and illegal activity of transporting and hiding runaway slaves. Unforeseen situations arise, forcing the Hensley family to take risks that put the entire family in danger. In the fall of 1860, Abraham Lincoln is elected President. Soon after taking office in March of 1861, a battle is fought at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The dividing line is drawn, as eleven ...

It’s May 1863. Outgeneraled and outgunned, a demoralized Union Army has pulled back with massive losses at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Fort Sumter, hated symbol of the Rebellion, taunts the American navy with its artillery and underwater mines. In Beaufort, SC, one very special woman, code named Moses, is hatching a spectacular plan. Hunted by Confederates, revered by slaves, Harriet Tubman plots an expedition behind enemy lines to liberate hundreds of bondsmen and recruit them as soldiers.

No one knows where the term Underground Railroad came from - there were no trains or tracks, only "conductors" who helped escaping slaves to freedom. Including real stories about "passengers" on the "railroad", this audiobook chronicles slaves' close calls with bounty hunters, their exhausting struggles on the road, and what they sacrificed for freedom.

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.

The Underground Railroad was the passage to freedom for many slaves, but it was rife with dangers. There were dedicated conductors and safe houses, but also arduous nights in the mountains and days in threatening towns. For those who made it to Midnight (the code name given to Detroit), the Detroit River became a River Jordan and Canada became their land of Canaan - the Promised Land where they could live freely in black settlements under the protection of British law.

Rachel Benton and her daughter embark on a pleasant country drive to research her ancestors when a sudden storm drives them in an unexpected direction. Stranded and alone, an isolated cabin seems to offer refuge, but within those timbered walls more threats await. Rachel’s troubles in the present are woven together with a family embroiled in the Civil War and the lives they touch on their journey to freedom. Lives are imperiled, and a dawning realization changes Rachel’s life forever. Dual time lines skillfully woven together draw readers into the action-filled story. And true details ...

Praised by Alice Walker and many other best-selling writers, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree is an award-winning debut novel with incredible heart about life on the prairie as it's rarely been seen. Reminiscent of The Color Purple as well as the frontier novels of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Willa Cather, it opens a window on the little-known history of African American homesteaders and gives voice to an extraordinary heroine who embodies the spirit that built America.

In building a railroad, there is only one decisive spot - the end of the track. Nothing like this great work had ever been seen in the world when the last spike, a golden one, was driven in Promontory Peak, Utah, in 1869, as the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific tracks were joined. Ambrose writes with power and eloquence about the brave men - the famous and the unheralded, ordinary men doing the extraordinary - who accomplished the spectacular feat that made the continent into a nation.

When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad's leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can't bear children, but as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril.