Parents' Guide to A Most Perilous World: The True Story of the Young Abolitionists and Their Crusade Against Slavery

A MOST PERILOUS WORLD begins in Rochester, New York in 1854 in the home Lewis Douglass. At 13, he's already helping his family aid slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. But even as his father speaks of a better future, Lewis wonders how to have hope amidst all the discrimination and hate Black Americans are facing. In 1862, he decides to leave the US for Panama to help establish a Free Colored Colony. But the colony never gets beyond the planning stages and in 1863, when Blacks are finally allowed to join the Army, he enlists in the legendary 54th Massachusetts Colored Regiment (whose story is told in the movie Glory) and is sent to South Carolina. After the war, Lewis would teach at a night school for Black adults and work at a Black mining company in Colorado while campaigning to integrate Denver's schools. Like Lewis, George Garrison was trying to find his place in the world. After his parents refused to allow him to move to the violence-filled Kansas territory as an anti-slavery settler, he moved instead to Minnesota, another territory needing free state settlers, before finally moving to Kansas. In 1863, he enlisted as a White officer in the 55th Massachusetts Colored Regiment (so many Black men wanted to enlist that Massachusetts formed a second Black regiment), which would join Lewis' regiment in South Carolina. Long after the war ended, soldiers in the regiment would call upon George to "vouch" for them so they could receive government pensions. Lucy McKim grew up never knowing if her parents would be arrested or might even die as a result of their antislavery activities. In 1862, Lucy accompanied her father to South Carolina as part of the Philadelphia Port Royal Relief Association to help newly freed people with food, education, and religious instruction. The unforgettable songs and music Lucy heard there would, thanks to her efforts, be published in 1867 as Slave Songs of the United States, the first ever collection of Black songs, words, and music. Charlotte Forten grew up wanting to be an activist without being in the spotlight. She became a teacher and in 1862 also joined the Philadelphia Port Royal Association and taught newly freed Black students. After the war, Charlotte translated novels into French, wrote poems and essays, and helped found the National Association of Colored Women.