Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
A powerful story based on the real life and death of a Pakistani child sold into slavery "You see, for Iqbal I was not invisible. I existed, and he made me free." So begins this moving fictionalized account of the real Iqbal Masih — as told through the voice of Fatima, a young Pakistani girl whose life is changed by Iqbal's courage. Iqbal is sold to work in a carpet factory, where dexterous small fingers are duly exploited. Once there, the charismatic boy offers hope to the underfed, overworked, and joyless children. They endure the cramps of squatting on low benches, the blisters from weaving, the Master's abuse — even being chained to their looms — but Iqbal shows them that despite the abuse, their spirits cannot be sold and exploited. Soon, the factory is not running as smoothly; the children are organizing subtle acts of resistance — from scattering dust and lint to ruining carpets. Surviving abuse, betrayal, and imprisonment, Iqbal triumphantly escapes, contacts a human-rights group, and returns to the factory to free his friends. In 1994 he won the Reebok Youth in Action Award and a scholarship to study law in the United States. Tragically, he was murdered — at the age of thirteen — by the Pakistani carpet mafia
WORKS CITED LIST
Black Family in Slavery and Freedom
, 1750-1925 by Herbert George Gutman.It is accepted today that the absence of black males from involvement with family structures is a characteristic of the shift in post Civil War and post WWII migration of males for employment purposes. This includes the historically relative and racist lack of employment for black males in America. Gutman caused a stir before writing this publication by advocating public policy on the idea that American slavery had destroyed the American "Negro" family meaning black fathers were often absent and incapable of raising children.
https://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~el6/presentations/pres_ c1_african_americans_ws02_03/novels_about_slavery.htm
*Brown U. Report Seeks Slavery Memorial
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press Writer
https://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Oct18/0,4670,BrownUniversit ySlavery,00.html*Forced labour - global problem
Tuesday, 6 June 2006,
https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/slavery/default.st m*
Modern slavery thriving in the U.S.By Janet Gilmore, Media Relations | 23 September 2004
https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/09/23_16691 .shtml
