Isaac Johnson: From Slave to Stonecutter

Children's Literature - Gisela Jernigan

Isaac Johnson's early life was fairly happy and secure, even though his white father and black, slave mother were not technically married. But when he was seven, everything suddenly changed for the worse when his father callously sold his entire family. Isaac never saw his mother or brothers again. This harrowing but inspirational biography is based on Isaac Johnson's own work, Slavery Days In Old Kentucky. An author's note explains how Marston researched the book. Black and white photos, drawings, a timeline, an index, and a list of additional readings further enhance the book.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-7-Based on Johnson's own Slavery Days in Old Kentucky, this readable biography begins in 1851 when seven-year-old Isaac was sold into slavery by his white father. It briefly recounts his 10 years of labor as a slave and how he ran away to join the Union Army. Marston's account of Johnson's life after the war is documented and enlivened by primary-source material. She avoids sensationalism, but depicts slavery and her subject's consequent career as a stonecutter and stonemason in Ontario and in New York in a spare and poignant manner. Average-quality pencil drawings appear throughout in addition to black-and-white photographs of some structures that Johnson designed and built.-Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS