A Choice Outstanding Academic Book of 1996 “King provides a jarring snapshot of children living in bondage. This compellingly written work is a testament to the strength and resilience of the children and their parents.” —Kathleen Hughes, Booklist
“Stolen Childhood is a wonderful book with manifold strengths of research and analysis.” —Nell Irvin Painter, The Journal of Southwest Georgia History
“She [King] takes an enormous step toward filling some of the voids in the literature of slavery. . . .” —Adele Logan Alexander, Washington Post Book World
“Wilma King has done a service in correcting a major problem in slave history. Her writing style gracefully conveys both the joys and the terrors of youth under slavery.” —David Libby, Southern Historian
“King’s deeply researched, well-written, passionate study places children and young adults at center stage in the North American slave experience.” —J. D. Smith, Choice
“Stolen Childhood is a welcome addition to the burgeoning literature on the slave experience in the United States.” —V. P. Franklin, History of Education Quarterly
“Stolen Childhood” mines the major American archives in order to present the ways in which enslaved men and women created a semblance of family life and cultural heritage.” —Mary Warner Marien, Christian Science Monitor
Wilma King argues that childhood was stolen from these children—they were forced into the workplace at an early age, subjected to arbitrary plantation authority and punishment, and were separated from family. King follows the slave child’s experience through work, play and leisure, education, socialization, resistance to slavery, and the transition to freedom. |
