SuitabookDanger on the Railroad
Susan Martins Miller
- Reading
- Read together in short stretches, pausing when the siblings describe what they value about the river or railway. Invite your child to compare their views before moving on to the family’s choices about Kansas.
- Themes
- Railway and river: Tina values the Ohio River’s peacefulness and worries about walking beside railway lines; Charles admires the railway’s power, speed and reach. The siblings’ contrasting views place the railway’s power and speed alongside concern about safety.
- Opposition to slavery: Charles rejects the idea that the South’s beauty makes slavery beautiful; Uncle Tim wants to move to Kansas to vote against slavery, and Tina and Charles’s father also opposes it. The stated opposition to slavery and Charles’s rejection of that justification support a reading that the story criticises slavery.
- Historical family story: The story follows a fictional family across three centuries of actual historical events. The family story is framed as a way to bring historical events into view, rather than as a claim that the family itself is real.
- Worth knowing
- Slavery is discussed directly: Charles rejects the idea that the South’s beauty makes slavery beautiful, and the family includes people opposed to slavery.