Memories of the Irish Potato Famine from 1845–1850 were so devastating for the survivors that few ever talked about it, even among their own family members. But Susan Campbell Bartoletti has managed to uncover enough first-person anecdotes to personalize her balanced account of the history and politics behind the Great Famine. This book also includes information gleaned from newspapers and public records, in addition to secondary sources. Her narrative, accompanied by period sketches, chronicles the effects of years of potato blight, which led to massive starvation, disease, emigration, and the complete failure of an economic system based on absentee landlords and tenant farming. (Ages 11–14)

In 1845, a disaster struck Ireland. Overnight, a mysterious blight attacked the potato crops, turning the potatoes black and destroying the only real food of nearly six million people.
Over the next five years, the blight attacked again and again. These years are known today as the Great Irish Famine, a time when one million people died from starvation and disease and two million more fled their homeland.
Black Potatoes is the compelling story of men, women, and children who defied landlords and searched empty fields for scraps of harvested vegetables and edible weeds to eat, who walked several miles each day to hard-labor jobs for meager wages and to reach soup kitchens, and who committed crimes just to be sent to jail, where they were assured of a meal. It s the story of children and adults who suffered from starvation, disease, and the loss of family and friends, as well as those who died. Illustrated with black and white engravings, it s also the story of the heroes among the Irish people and how they held on to hope."