A Ballad Of the Civil War

By: Marty Stolz
Illustrated by: Sergio Martinez
Historical Fiction
~This book is an account two young twin boys Jack and Tom Rigsby growing up in the South. Jack and Tom lived on their fathers plantation where they had slaves as housekeepers and farmhands. All growig up, a young slave by the name of Aaron helped raise the boys and as far as they were concerned was basically their brother. Aaron was allowed to play with the boys and even stay up at the house instead of in the quarter with the other slaves. Then, one day when Tom and Jack turned 9, there father, Mr. Rigsby banished Aaron to the quarters and to work on the field with his father. Aaron was no longer allowed to see Tom and Jack because Mr. Rigsby thought he was getting too "upity" and that could cause problems with the other slaves. Tom was heartbroken. He loved Aaron as a brother and was not even allowed to see him to tell him that it was not his fault. Jack on the other hand thought it needed to be done becuase they shouldnt be playing with the colord folk anyhow. As the boys got older, they began realizing more and more their different feelings towards slaves. Tom always thought it was wrong for white folk to own slaves and buy and sell them as if they were cattle. Jack on the other hand thought that they had a right to own slaves. When the boys turned 19 the Civil War had began. Jack couldnt wait to get out there and fight for their right to own slaves nad protect their way of tlife. Jack thought for sure Tom would join him, but Tom had plans to join the Union army to help free the slaves. When Tom told his family he was heading North to fight with the Union, his family felt very betraye, but Tom felt he had to fight for what he thought was right. The story begins with Tom riding his horse and finds a rebel soldier on the side of the road, then it cuts into the story of them growing up. The story then catches back up with Tom finding the Rebel soldier on the side of the road and Tom thinks it is his brother Jack. Unfortunately it is not jack, but Tom still pulls the man to safety.
~This would be a great book to use in the classroom for a study on the Civil War. It is only a 50 page book and would be good for most reading levels at 4th or 5th grade. The book gives a different view about how children precieved slavery.Discussion could be fascilitated on how Tom felt being against slavery when his whole family depended on it. The book ends kind of abruptly as well, so you could have students each write their own ending to the book. Be sure to talk about how this happened to many familys. This war was a brothers war becuase the North and the South are part of the United States and it almost tore our country apart, just as many familys were separated because of diferences in opinoin about slavery.