60 pages • 2 hours read
Shelley PearsallTrouble Don't Last
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001A 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. They had no legal rights and were subject to various forms of abuse. Being the legal property of someone else, they could not own property of their own, and they were also subject to being sold, gifted, gambled, or otherwise given to someone other than their original enslaver. They had no say in this matter, and this often led to the forced separation of families because plantation owners or other enslavers might sell one member of the family, but not the whole family. Alternatively, they might sell different family members to different buyers. Oftentimes, family members who were separated in this way would never see or hear from each other again since they were not granted visiting privileges and were not allowed to correspond (or to write at all). The separation of families is a prominent topic in Trouble Don’t Last, and it is also a motivator for some formerly enslaved characters to seek freedom. The meaning of “freedom” is complex, but one aspect of it that the novel emphasizes is the ability to live with one’s family without the threat of having the family unit torn apart by outside forces.
Historical Context: The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an extensive network of people, routes, and hiding places that fugitives from slavery or freedom fighters utilized in their journeys to freedom, either in the northern, “free” states or in Canada. It was not a single entity; instead, it consisted of a web of different networks and individuals. Sometimes, someone could spontaneously decide to help a formerly enslaved person or freedom seeker, and this decision would technically make them a part of what is now historically considered to be the Underground Railroad, although the person may not have considered themselves to be part of this network at the time. At other times, there were deliberate and organized connections between different members of the Underground Railroad, and routes could be planned in advance. Not all freedom seekers were aided for their entire journeys, and some were not aided at all.
Aiding freedom seekers was illegal, especially after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. All participants in the Underground Railroad would thus be subject to repercussions should they be caught, so secrecy was important. According to the National Park Service, the Underground Railroad became more deliberately organized after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which put freedom seekers in danger even in states where enslavement was already abolished. This made secrecy from authorities and coded communication among members of the network even more important. For example, in Trouble Don’t Last, code words are used to describe patrollers as well as bodies of water that separate one state from another. Each person took a different route on the Underground Railroad because everyone started from a different place and headed to a different destination. People traveled by foot, boat, carriage, and train, and they often utilized disguises, forged papers, hiding places, night journeys, and other methods to evade detection. Help came from individuals of various ethnic and religious backgrounds. In Trouble Don’t Last, Samuel and Harrison escape enslavement and then receive help from various characters, not all of whom have entirely noble intentions. However, their journey was not planned with these people in advance, and sometimes, people only decide to help them on the spur of the moment.
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