60 pages 2 hours read

Shelley Pearsall

Trouble Don't Last

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Background

Historical Context: Enslavement in the United States

The first ship carrying kidnapped Africans to enslavement in what is now the United States arrived in 1619, and the institution of chattel slavery remained legal in parts of the US until 1865, when the Civil War ended and the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Because slavery was abolished in many states prior to 1865, fugitives from slavery would sometimes travel to those “free” states to avoid being recaptured. However, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed patrols to recapture formerly enslaved people in any state, and the act also required citizens to report formerly enslaved people. This made the northern, free states inhospitable to fugitives from slavery between 1850 and 1865. Since Trouble Don’t Last takes place in 1859, Samuel and Harrison must travel to Canada to seek true freedom. Neither Kentucky nor Ohio (which was a free state by then) are safe for them.

Under chattel slavery in the US, people born to an enslaved mother would automatically be enslaved as well and would legally become the property of the same person who enslaved their mother. This is what happens to Samuel, the protagonist of Trouble Don’t Last. Enslaved people were forced to work for whoever enslaved them, without pay or compensation.

Related Titles

By Shelley Pearsall

Plot Summary

logo

All of the Above

Shelley Pearsall

All of the Above

Shelley Pearsall

Plot Summary

logo

All Shook Up

Shelley Pearsall

All Shook Up

Shelley Pearsall

Plot Summary

logo

Crooked River

Shelley Pearsall

Crooked River

Shelley Pearsall

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE

logo

The Seventh Most Important Thing

Shelley Pearsall

The Seventh Most Important Thing

Shelley Pearsall