From Chains to Change — Book 1: Origins

From Chains to Change begins before the chains. Book 1 opens with the kingdoms of Africa: Kush, whose kings ruled Egypt; Aksum; the gold empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai; Great Zimbabwe; and a Kongo king who wrote to Portugal in 1526 to protest the slave trade. Then it follows the people taken across the Atlantic, what they carried with them, and how they resisted, through the Underground Railroad and the abolitionists who fought to end slavery.

• 4 chapters, about 4,000 words
• 26 historical images
• Sources cited in the text, with a full bibliography