A review by carolineinthelibrary
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865 by Joyce Hansen

4.0

I think this is such an important book to read in tandem with learning about the Civil War and Reconstruction. So much of what we learn as kids about the end of slavery is "Abe Lincoln reads the Emancipation Proclamation and there's no more slavery" but that's not at all the case. Patsy's diaries give a glimpse at some of the anxieties, fears, and hopes that newly freed slaves had after the end of the war.