Historical Fiction Novel

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman was born in 1822. She was born into slavery in Maryland on the plantation of Anthony Thompson. She was the fifth of nine children. Her parents names were Harriet "Rit" Green and Benjamin Ross. Both Benjamin and Rit were slaves. Edward Brodess was the stepson of Anthony Thompson, and he eventually took over ownership of Harriet's family. Around 1823, Brodess took Rit and 5 of her children to his own plantation. Brodess illegally sold some of Harriet's siblings to out of state buyers, leaving Harriet's family broken.
When Harriet was just a teenager, she was working in the fields with other slaves when an angry overseer through an iron weight at a runaway slave, missed, and hit Harriet in the head. For the rest of her life, she suffered major migraines, sleeping spells, and seizures.
In about 1844, she married John Tubman, a free African-American. On March 7th, 1849, Edward Brodess died. This left Harriet and her family in danger of being sold to another plantation. Later in the year, Harriet made a huge decision. She made her trip through the Underground Railroad. She traveled only at night, with help from both White and African-American people, she eventually found her way to Philidelphia. When she reached her destination, she looked for work as a domestic; her goal was to earn enough money for her family to travel through the Underground Railroad and meet her in freedom. Throughout the years of 1850-1860, she helped about 11-13 escape missions.
In 1862, Harriet became a nurse for wounded African-American soldiors. In June 1863, she was the first woman to command an armed military raid.
When the war was over, she returned back to her home in Auburn, NY. There she began work as a community activist, humanitatian, and suffragist. Sarah Bradford, in 1869, published a book that brought brief fame and helped finantial issues for Harriet and her family. The book's title was "Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman". Harriet's former husband, John Tubman, was killed in Maryland in 1867. Harriet married Nelson Davis, a veteren, that same year.
Harriet Tubman died at the old age of 91, on March 10th, 1913. Her life was hard, but she made the best of things, even when she thought there wasn't chance. She is a hero, in both her time, and ours.
SOURCE: http://www.harriettubmanbiography.com/

President Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13th, 1743. He was the third of eight children. His mothers name was Jane Randolph, and his father was Peter Jefferson. Peter was a planter and a surveyor in Albemarle County. In 1752, when Thomas was 9, he started going to a school run by a Scottish minister named William Douglas. Thomas began studying Latin, French and Greek. His father passed away when he was 14, in 1757. He inherited about 5,000 acres of land and dozens of slaves. He built his house there, the very famous Monticello. After his father died, Thomas was taught at the school of the minister James Maury. He stayed there from 1758-1760. He got a classical education and studied history and science. In 1760, Thomas went to The College of William and Mary when he was 16. He later graduated with highest honors in 1762. When he was 21, his oldest sister died at the age of 25. Not much later, Thomas became a lawyer; he took care of over one hundred cases per year between the years 1768 and 1773. In 1772, Thomas married a widow named Martha Wayles Skelton. Martha was 23 when she married Thomas. Together they had six children. Unfortunately, Martha passed away on September 6th, 1782. Thomas never remarried. Thomas served as the delegate to the Second Continental Congress, which started in 1775. It began right after the American Revolutionary War. Later in his life, Thomas wrote the Declaration of Independence. On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed and approved. The Declaration of Independence is what began Thomas's famousness. In September 1776, Thomas returned to Virgina and was elected to the Virgina House of Delegates, which at the time was a new thing. Later, he served as the Virgina Governor from 1779-1781. Thomas also served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington. In 1796, Thomas lost the presidential race to John Adams, but he had enough electoral votes to become Vice President. In 1800, Thomas ran for President, and won. He served as the 3rd President of the United States of America from 1801-1809. Thomas Jefferson died on the Fourth of July in 1826, at the age of 83. President Jefferson was an amazing Founding Father, and he served our country well.
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_jefferson

William Still

William Still's birth date is not sure of, but the quess is October 7th, 1821. He was born in Burnlington County, New Jersey. His parents were Charity and Levin Still. Both of his parents were former slaves, who had come from Maryland. He was the youngest of 18 siblings. His father had bought his own freedom from his slave owner. When his mother, Charity escaped to join Levin, she brought along her four children. Unfortunatly, she was caught and quickly returned to slavery. She successfully escaped a second time with her two daughters, and happily joined her husband. She left behind two of her sons, who were sold to slave owners in Alabama. In 1884, Still moved to Philidelphia, Pennsylvania, and worked as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. Soon after, Pennsylvania decided to organize a committee to help runaway slaves who were reaching Pennsylvania. Still became the committee's chairman. In 1847, he married Letitia George and had four children, who grew to be a medical doctor, a lawyer, a journalist, and a kindergarten teacher.

William Still's nickname was "The Father of the Underground Railroad", because he helped as many as 60 slaves per month escape to freedom. He kept brief biographies of each person; he would interview them on their trip to freedom, yet he kept these records hidden. One person he interviewed, Peter Still, he found to be his own brother. Later Still published "The Underground Railroad Records" which contained small biographies of 649 slaves who escaped through the Underground Railroad. Eventually, Still and his two brothers, Peter and James, settled in Lawnside, New Jersey. Still died in 1902. He had a long and rewarding life, and he will always be remembered.

SOURCE:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Still

Josiah Henson

Josiah Henson was born in 1789 on June 15th. He was born into slavery in Charle's County, Maryland. When he was a boy, his father was severly punished for disobeying his slave owner. He was bought by someone in Alabama. Young Josiah was soon separated from his mother and siblings when he was sold as property in a house sale. His new owner was Isaac Riley. In 1830, he escaped to Kent County, U. C., because he learned he was about to be sold to a new owner again. Being free in U. C., he became a Methodist preacher, and he founded a settlement and laborer school for fugative slaves. He also served in the Canadian army as a military officer. He happily married and had four children. Also in 1830, he and his family went into upper Canada. Ontario became a free place for slaves, meaning that he and his family were free,and had nothing to fear about being sold or separated, like his own family had been. By the time that Henson and his family had arrived in Ontario, many African-Americans, most of which were former slaves, had escaped and made home in Ontario. In him new home, Henson became a farmer, slowly moving to different spots with friends. By 1834, he had set up African- American settlement on land that he had rented. There, he was able to buy 200 acres of land through contacts and financial assisstance. Eventually he purchased an additional 200 acres for his families land, which was right next to his settlement. Josiah Henson was the first African-American person to be on a Canadian stamp. Henson died on May 5th, 1883, when he was 94 years old. In 1999, he was recognized as a National Historic Person by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. Henson accomplished many things in his lifetime, including escaping from slavery, having a family (in much danger because he wasn't in free land), escaping to free land, buying 400 acres total when at one point in his life he had had no money, and many other things. He is very brave and heroic, and we could all learn something from him.

SOURCE:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Henson

Setting-Geography

My geographical setting will be on a plantation in Maryland. I chose this setting because my main character actually did grow up on a plantation in Maryland. The whole story will not be on a plantation because my character is going to escape from the plantation. Maryland is not a desert, or a jungle, but it has some forests and places that my character could escape and hide in. Having the forests is also a problem for my character because it is not an easy thing to escape to Delaware, where my character will be trying to go. She will have a lot of obstacles put in her way. The weather there is very similar to the weather here, so if you want to think about how the climate would be, just think about how the weather is here. Also, in the 1820's, which is the time period for my story, Maryland wasn't a free state, which affected my characters rights when she lived there.

Setting-Mood

The moods I will try to create are mainly suspense and excitment, because my character is going to attempt to escape slavery and try to make it all the way along the Underground Railroad to freedom. There they will face experiences like being caught by their slave owner, and crazy attempts to stay out of the owner's way and make it to freedom. I think that these are good moods to set the story as, because it will really hook the reader in. It will make them want to keep reading. If I were the reader, I would want to read a book that has a good plot. I think that the mood is very important, because without it, you really cannot make it a good story. The plot depends on the mood, and I think that suspence and excitment as the main moods will really hold up the whole story.