The Second Escape of Arthur Cooper

by Cynthia M. Stowe

In 1822, on Nantucket Island, runaway slave Arthur Cooper and his family are protected from slave catchers by the Folgers, a family of Quakers, in a fictional account of an historical event as told through the eyes of Phebe Folger.

112 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2000

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur Cooper was a real person who, as a young man, escaped slavery in Virginia and went north to Massachusetts, where he married a free-born African-American woman, had several children, and moved to Nantucket Island, where in 1822 he was nearly captured by slave catchers but rescued by the Quaker community. The narrator of this novel is a fictional Quaker child, ten-year-old Phebe Folger. Arthur's wife, Mary, is hired by Phebe's father to care for her mother, bedridden since a carriage accident several months ago. Phebe has many concerns present in all children. She worries for her mother and resents her older sister's efforts to educate her. Phebe describes several months of her life as she gets to know the Cooper family. When the family is in danger of being captured, Phebe helps to save them. This was an inspiring novel about how a group of people, including young children, saw a great evil (slavery) and did whatever they could to prevent it. Middle grade readers who enjoy historical fiction are sure to enjoy it.