Tim Gregory
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William wondered how anyone was supposed to battle slavery. After all, King George III and the Church of England both had large amounts of money invested in trade with the West Indies. And a large number of bishops sat in the House of Lords. William shook his head. This was a much bigger fight than he felt capable of taking on. For two hundred years, British slave ships plied the Middle Passage, taking African men, women, and children to their
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David's father stood beside the stone chimney and spoke to his son. "It's time to grow up, lad," he said. "Mr. Siler has hired you to go to Virginia with him. He's run ragged trying to keep the cattle with him, and he needs a young 'un with strong legs and keen eyes to help him out. Better hitch the wagon and say your good-byes."
Growing up in Greene County, Tennessee, Davy Crockett's education came from the toil of hard labor. Working as a farm...
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Written for ages 10 and up - enjoyed by adults!
Alan Shepard gripped the abort handle and braced his feet against the capsule floor. Five, Four, Three... Don't screw up, he muttered. Two, One, Zero, Liftoff. Alan felt himself rising into the sky. He could scarcely believe it. The boy who grew up with a passion for flying was off on the ultimate flight - to space!
Alan Shepard's boyhood fascination with flight led him from constructing model airplanes...
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It was completely dark. The only things visible now were the two small beacon fires on the Pinta and the Nina. Christopher was glad the two fires calmed his, too. Their glow reminded him that the Santa Maria was not alone on the vast, uncharted Ocean Sea. The three ships would sail together into the unknown.
Buoyant and determined, and having at last won the support of the king and queen of Spain, Christopher Columbus sailed west from Europe with...
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Growing up in a small town in England, William Bradford lived during a time of upheaval and opportunity. Together with a group of Separatists, William escaped England to establish a new life in Holland and finally set out on the Mayflower on a perilous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.
The New World beckoned as a land of freedom and possibility. Yet wild waters, icy winters, Indian attacks, starvation, and treason threatened the European settlers'...
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Ben thought about the strange course of events that had led him to this point in his life. He had considered being a lawyer but had ended up becoming a doctor, and now he was also a politician and member of the Continental Congress. Ben had never thought of working with the army. But for now, that was what he was doing. He wondered if he too might be called to die for the new country they were trying to forge.
Filled with intelligence and devotion,...
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We've done more than our share to see you right, but you're a Hershey, a true son of a dreamer,' Milton's Uncle Abraham said. 'You'll never stick with anything long enough to make it work for you.' Milton gulped. He'd already suspected that his relatives had given up on him succeeding as a candy maker, but the words still stung.
When Milton Hershey's famous Hershey Bars debuted in 1905, few people knew of the hard work, dedication, and sacrifice...
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As Ben experimented, people peppered him with questions about electricity. Distracted, Ben was still holding the ends of two bare wires when the other ends touched the Leyden jars. A massive charge knocked him to the ground. When he clambered to his feet, he had to admit that his guests appeared to have enjoyed watching him get electrocuted.
Benjamin Franklin's life never lacked excitement and intrigue. As a printer, writer, scientist, inventor,...
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When the canteen water supply ran dry again, Louie began to doubt they'd survive. He thought back to when he first arrived in Hawaii and Eddie Rickenbacker and his crew had just been rescued from a record of twenty-one days drifting on rafts much like the one Louie was in. Louie was sure that twenty-one days on a life raft represented the outer limits of human survival.
As an Olympic runner, a bombardier in the Army Air Corps, and a prisoner of war,...
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Born in Denison, Texas, Dwight David Eisenhower grew up poor in Abilene, Kansas. After graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point, Ike entered army service, commanding tank training in WWI and afterward, serving in Central America, Europe, and the Philippines.
During WWII Ike directed US forces in Europe, eventually becoming supreme commander of Allied forces and leading the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. A lifetime of service, sacrifice,...
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With only three months of formal education, Thomas Edison grew up to be one of the most successful inventors of all time. Applying scientific principles to practical use, he made scores of inventions and held over thirteen hundred patents, from improvements on the telegraph and phonograph to the development of the incandescent lamp and a whole system for distributing electricity.
Edison's rise from humble beginnings and his unceasing struggle to...
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As adventurers from around the world raced to reach the South Pole and achieve other polar firsts in the early 1900s, outsider Ernest Shackleton and his motley expeditions would outshine even the British navy, becoming icons of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Known for prizing loyalty, leadership, and skill without regard for rank or social class - and for bringing men back alive - Shackleton completed three death-defying Antarctic journeys....
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Born into slavery in Maryland, Frederick Douglass was separated from his mother during infancy, then taken from his grandparents at the age of six to serve at the "Great House" on the Wye Plantation in Maryland. He never imagined the cruelties he would witness or the indignities of his family being treated like cattle to be sold, divided, and scattered far and wide.
Escaping from slavery, Frederick Douglass became a national leader of the abolitionist...
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From his early days living in small-town poverty, young Dutch Reagan's thoughts were always on the future. Whether helping his family through financial hard times or doggedly pursuing opportunities reserved for the few, Dutch knew that all the knowledge that he had absorbed over the years was waiting inside of him for a chance to come out.
Achieving success as an athlete, sports announcer, and actor, Ronald Reagan discovered his greatest role late...
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Ben visited Maranda's family the night before the young girl's brain surgery. He spoke to her parents, outlining the risks one last time. The surgery should take about five hours. There's a strong likelihood that Maranda could bleed uncontrollably and die right there. Or she could survive and be paralyzed and never speak again. There is no way to know what will happen.
As a child growing up in Detroit, Ben Carson (1951-) has a dream of becoming a...
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At last Orville was free, soaring above the sand dunes, wind in his face. Lying in the glider's wing, he moved his hips in the control cradle and the craft began to turn as planned. But then something went wrong. The glider wanted to go into a spin, and as Orville struggled with the controls, it came to a standstill in midair.
When Orville Wright (1871-1948) and his brother Wilbur set out to solve the problem of flight, they recognized that success...
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The mainsail cracked above them in the ferocious wind as a group of red-faced men descended on John. "You have brought a curse on us. Overboard with you," one of the men yelled. A chorus of cheers went up. It was the last sound John heard before he was dumped over the side of the ship and engulfed by the dark, roiling ocean."
Thrown overboard, enslaved by the Turks, captured by pirates, rescued by a princess-the story of Englishman John Smith (1580-1631)...
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Billy boarded the train to Minneapolis. He had come to Los Angeles months before as a small-time preacher. Now he was leaving as one of the most recognized Christians in the country. It was not what Billy had sought; he'd just been open for God to use. Billy wondered if this would be the peak of his fame or if something bigger was about to happen.
The oldest son of dairy farmers from Charlotte, North Carolina, young Billy Graham (1918-) attended...