The following collection of thematically related readings is available in Jubilee and Related Readings in McDougal Littell's Literature Connections series.

"Virginia Portrait" by Sterling A. Brown
(from The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, © 1980)
Summary: For the woman in this poem, a serene winter arrives at last.

Excerpt from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet A. Jacobs
Summary: Harriet Jacobs escaped from her owners, hid for nearly seven years, then fled north in 1842. Still in danger, she was bought by friends and freed in 1852. Her autobiography describes experiences that parallel Vyry's.

"Raise a Ruckus Tonight" and "Many Thousand Gone" edited by Jerry Silverman
(from Slave Songs, © 1994)
Summary: The first song tells of promises broken. The second is a reaction to emancipation.

"Come Up From the Fields Father" by Walt Whitman
Summary: Whitman's poem captures the emotions of those on the home front who wait for their men to come back from the Civil War.

"The Sheriff's Children" by Charles Waddell Chesnutt
Summary: In this story, Charles Waddell Chesnutt shows a devasting consequence of the color line in post-Civil War America.

"Traveling the Long Road to Freedom by Conovan Webster
(from Smithsonian Magazine, © 1996)
Summary: This article tells how an African-American historian followed the footsteps of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad 150 years ago.

"To the University of Cambridge, in New-England" by Phillis Wheatley
Summary: Phillis Wheatley founded the African American literary tradition. Here she offers advice to the Harvard students of her time.

"To Phillis Wheatley" by Lisa Clayton
(from Testimony, © 1995)
Summary: A young Harvard woman in the 1990s thinks about her ties with Wheatley and poses questions she would like to ask her if she could.