Unavailable for several years, Virginia Hamilton's award-winning companion to The People Could Fly traces the history of slavery in America in the voices and stories of those who lived it. Leo and Diane Dillon's brilliant black-and-white illustrations echo the stories' subtlety and power, making this book as stunning to look at as it is to read. "There is probably no better way to convey the meaning of the institution of slavery as it existed in the United States to young readers than by using, as a text to share and discuss, Many Thousand Gone."--The New York Times Book Review