The House of Dies Drear Chapter 1 Summary?

Question

Can anyone summarize or find a summary of Chapter 1 of The House of Dies Drear....
I really need it.

Also, anyone have a summary for "Slave" by Virginia Hamilton?

Answer 1

THE HOUSE OF DIES DREAR
BY: VIRGINIA HAMILTON

SUMMARY:
Virginia Hamilton has composed a mysterious, historical and suspenseful children’s book that brings an Underground Railroad to life for the Small family. Thomas Small is a young boy that embarks on an adventure when he and his family relocate to Ohio. His father is a history buff and purchases a home that is legendary in the small town. In the 1800’s, Dies Drear was the original builder and owner of the Smalls' new home. He and two other slaves were murdered and are presumed to still occupy the house with their spirits. The house is described as huge, historical, abandoned and secretive. There are many characters in the book that have special interests concerning the house and the possible treasures and artifacts that still may remain from the slaves that passed through on their journey to freedom. The original impressions that the reader forms about the characters change throughout the story when motives and ancestry are discovered by the Small family. It is certainly a dramatic mystery that provides insight into the way that Underground Railroads and the abolitionists established a movement that lead to freedom.

Hamilton, Virginia. Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave. (New York: A.A. Knopf, Random House, 1988) Summary: A biography of the slave, who escaped to Boston in 1854, was arrested at the instigation of his owner, and whose trial caused a furor between abolitionists and those determined to enforce the Fugitive Slave Acts. Middle School. A 2005 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book.

Anthony Burns:
The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave
by Virginia Hamilton
Born a slave in Virginia, Anthony Burns was twenty when he escaped to Boston in 1854. There, for a few short months, he lived and worked as a free man. But overnight Burns' brief time of happiness ended. He was arrested and held without bail at the instigation of his former owner, Charles Suttle, who came to Boston invoking the Fugitive Slave Act - a highly controversial federal law that allowed owners to reclaim escaped slaves by presenting proof of ownership. Suttle made it clear that he had every intention of taking Anthony home.
But Anthony had powerful allies: thousands of abolitionists who saw him as a symbol of freedom imperiled; the Boston Vigilance Committee, a group of legal professionals sworn to use any means within their power to defend the rights of fugitive slaves; and Richard Dana, the patrician lawyer and author of Two Years Before the Mast, who stepped forward to defend Anthony without charge.

At a time when antislavery feeling was at a fever pitch in the North, the Burns case literally rocked Boston. His hearings triggered massive, violent riots, and thousands of troops, called in by a federal administration openly sympathetic to the fugitive slave laws, turned the former Cradle of Liberty into an armed camp. At its center, haunted by memories of his life as a slave, hardly daring to hope that his defenders would prevail, was Anthony Burns himself.

Here is historical reconstruction at its finest. Newbery Medal winner Virginia Hamilton has put her lifelong interest in black history and her formidable gift as a novelist to striking use in this fascinating account. No one but she could have taken the dramatic true story of Anthony Burns and made it unforgettable.

Answer 2

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RE:
The House of Dies Drear Chapter 1 Summary?
Can anyone summarize or find a summary of Chapter 1 of The House of Dies Drear....
I really need it.

Also, anyone have a summary for "Slave" by Virginia Hamilton?

Answer 3

I only have 2 hrs to complete the project for this book in my Hu/la class... I hate it!

Chapter 1: Thomas and his family are in the car going to Ohio to the see the new house and Thomas finds out some history facts of the house and it's mystery.

Answer 4

http://www.enotes.com/anthony-burns-qn follow this link for "SLAVE"

Answer 5

try

http://www.cinemacrawler.com/?Operation=ItemLookup&ItemId=0020435207