Washington City Is Burning - Hardcover

Robinet, Harriette Gillem

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689807732 ISBN 13: 9780689807732

Publisher: Atheneum, 1996

Synopsis

Although Virginia lives a comfortable life as a slave of President Madison, she does not believe in the cruelty of slavery as a whole and so devises a plan that sets many slaves free when the White House catches fire during the War of 1812.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-Robinet has used some events of the War of 1812 and other historical facts as the background for this first-person fictionalized narrative. Virginia, or Virgie as Dolley Madison insists on calling her, recounts her life as a young slave of James and Dolley Madison. The strengths of this story are the author's use of the personal-journal style, the incorporation of real facts and people from the African-American community, and the attitudes of the British during that period of our history. Robinet evokes both empathy and dislike for her young heroine as Virginia recounts how she foolishly reveals secret information about slave escapes while trying to get some affection from a traitorous, hateful female slave. The slaves' strengths and weaknesses, the hardships and triumphs they endure, and their interactions unfold as readers get information about important events and people in Washington City during the early 1800s. The author's note will help readers get a better perspective about the truths in this work of fiction. This book could be introduced along with Patricia and Frederick McKissack's Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters (Scholastic, 1994). The dialogue has the nuance of slave speech, but it will not deter readers. An above-average choice for historical-fiction shelves.
Marie T. Wright, University Library, Indianapolis
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Virginia is a slave in the house of President James Madison and his wife, Dolley; she was brought north from the state of Virginia to serve them at the White House in the month preceding the British invasion of Washington. While there she helps transport numerous runaway slaves to safety, inadvertently betrays 12 of them, and witnesses the British sacking of the city. This backstairs view of a slice of history is riveting for its period detail; Dolley Madison's extravagant parties, the trader slaves being marched past the White House, and the burning of the city are seen through the eyes of this bright and courageous 12-year-old who is both witness to and part of history. The characters--and their actions and ethics--are complex, especially Rosetta Bell, a slave who betrays her own people out of bitterness over the loss of her daughter and her own longing for freedom, and Dolley, who was brought up to believe slavery was wrong, yet keeps slaves out of political expediency. A fine, multilayered novel. (map, bibliography) (Fiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0689807732
• ISBN 13: 9780689807732
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160