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The Glory Field By Walter Dean Myers

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Sadie Hosler 2 hour 11/09/15 Slavery to Segregation; Civil War to Civil Rights The Glory Field is a novel by Walter Dean Myers that follows the Lewis family through racism and segregation. It starts with Muhammad Bilal being captured from Africa in 1753. It follows through to see young Lizzy escape from slavery on the live Oaks plantation in South Carolina in 1864. After the Civil War, the family is given is plot of land they refer to as the “Glory Field”, which represents hope for the family during their hardships. Lizzie’s son, Elijah, and his cousin Abby help the sheriff find a missing blind boy out on an island. After the hard journey the sheriff takes all the credit and threatens Elijah, who flees to Chicago with Uncle Joshua. Elijah’s daughter, Luvenia, struggles to get a job and into college in Chicago while her brother Richard travels back to South Carolina. Abby’s grandson, Tommy works with civil rights and protests, and tries to get into college for basketball. The story ends with Malcolm, Richard’s grandson, getting his his cousin Shep, who is struggling with drugs, to the family reunion. In reading this story one could wonder how the transition from slavery to segregation in the United States really occurred. The timeline can be split into three distinct sections, Emancipation, forming segregation, and life post-Civil War, pre-civil rights. The beginning of Emancipation starts with the Civil War ending when the Confederate army surrendered in spring of 1865

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