Lester, J. (2005). Day of tears: A novel in dialogue. New York: Hyperion Books for Children.
“It’s been three days since we’ve seen the sun. Yesterday it started raining and it hasn’t stopped since. The rain is coming down as hard as regret. Will said the rain started up just when the selling began. I ain’t never seen a rain like this. Will said, “This ain’t rain. This is God’s tears.”
The year was 1859. It took an auctioneer two days to sell 436 slaves like “bales of cotton”. The owner of these slaves had lost his fortune on the stock market and gambling and he walked away with $303,850 from those two days. Husbands and wives were separated, children were sold away from their parents, and brothers and sisters were sent to various parts of the south because they were thought of as property.
It has been a long time since I have sat down and finished a book cover to cover in one sitting. I wanted to get up and cry at the injustice that was shown to our fellow human beings. “Day of Tears” will make you want to weep in sadness but also cry out in triumph as slaves are freed and reunited with loved ones or as they are taken across the Ohio to a new life in the North. “Day of Tears” by Julius Lester is a historical fiction must read.
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