Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons is a 1996 historical novel

Historical novel

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...

 by Ann Rinaldi

Ann Rinaldi

Ann Rinaldi is an American young-adult fiction author. She is best known for her historical fiction, including In My Father's House, The Last Silk Dress, An Acquaintance with Darkness, A Break with Charity, and Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons...

. It is part of the Great Episodes

Great Episodes

Great Episodes is a series of historical novels written by Ann Rinaldi. They combine fictional and non-fictional characters to describe events in history.-Series:*A Ride into Morning , ISBN 0-15-200573-0...

 series. The story,told in first-person narration, follows the life of Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley was the first African American poet and first African-American woman whose writings were published. Born in Gambia, Senegal, she was sold into slavery at age seven...

, the first published African-American poet. The story recounts her capture by black slavers in Africa, the horrors of the Middle Passage

Middle Passage

The Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of people from Africa were shipped to the New World, as part of the Atlantic slave trade...

, and her emergence as a woman of intelligence and artistic ability, when society assumed Africans were not endowed with either.