When We Get to Heaven: Runaway Slaves on the Road to Peterboro
Description:
I never did sleep on a bedstead till after freedom....
There came this evening an old black man, a young one and his wife and infant....
Slavery is the next thing to hell....
Peterboro, New York is home to the National Abolition Hall of Fame. More than 140 years ago, as the home of national abolition leader Gerrit Smith, it had a different name: some called it Heaven .
This compelling book by scholar and Peterboro resident Norman K. Dann, Ph.D. is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn about slavery in America. It describes the origins of slavery and details the lives of slaves on southern plantations, with first-person narratives by slaves and their owners.
Finally, When We Get To Heaven documents the struggles of those who risked their lives to escape slavery, and in doing so, passed through Peterboro, New York--a quiet Central New York stop on the Underground Railroad.