Module 10: Day of Tears

Day of Tears 

by Julius Lester

Summary: The Butler family is faced with a very hard decision.  Master Butler has lost his money gambling and must figure out how to repay his debt.  In an attempt to clear this debt he begins to sell his slaves leading to the biggest slave auction in history.  Through dialogue, Butler's daughters, Emma (Butler's daughters' care taker), and Emma's parents tell of the events that led up to the sale and separation of Emma and her parents, her bravery, and she continued to live on.


Lester, J. (2007). Day of tears. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children.

My Impression: I give this historical fiction novel an A+.  This account gives me a glimpse of what slaves must have truly felt like when they faced being separated from their families.  This novel brought tears to my eyes and left me wanting to research this day further and read the book again.

Professional Reviews: 

Book List 

Gr. 6-9. From his first book, To Be a Slave (1968), Lester has told the history of slavery through personal accounts that relay the dehumanizing message of the perpetrators.  Here he draws on historical sources to fictionalize a real event: the biggest slave auction in American history, which took place in Savannah, Georgia, in 1859.  He imagines the individual voices of many who were there, adults and kids, including several slaves up for sale, the auctioneer, and the white masters and their families buying and selling the valuable merchandise.  The huge cast speaks in the present tense and sometimes from the future looking back.  A note fills in the facts.  The horror of the auction and its aftermath is unforgettable; individuals whom the reader has come to know are handled like animals, wrenched from family, friends, and love.  Then there's a sales list with names, ages, and the amount taken in for each person.  Brave runaways speak; so does an abolitionist who helps them.  Those who are not heroic are here, too, and the racism in virulent (there's widespread use of the n-word).  The personal voices make this a stirring text for group discussion.  Older readers may want to go on from here to the nonfiction narratives in Growing Up in Slavery. 

Rochman, H. (2005, February 1). Day of tears [Review of the book Day of tears, by Julius Lester]. Booklist, 101(11), 967.  Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/ 

Library Uses: Use a section of this book as a reader's theater.  With permission from parents record the students and play it as a book teaser for other classes.