top of page
This site was designed with the
.com
website builder. Create your website today.Start Now
Search
  • Writer's picturesivretmr
    • Sep 30, 2019
    • 9 min read

Freedom Over Me

Updated: Oct 2, 2019

A book where the real lives, dreams, experiences, and hopes of enslaved people are unveiled. Ashley Bryan creates a powerful story of poems, all from an estate appraisement from the year 1828. This book shows the priceless value of human dreams that cannot be taken away, even in captivity.

What is this story about?


This book introduces eleven slaves and brings their dreams, experiences, and hopes to life. The book introduces Charlotte, Stephen, Bacus, Betty, John, Jane, Peggy, Dora, Qush, Athelia, and Mulvina. All of these characters are real life slaves who worked on the Fairchild's plantation. The author found an Estate Appraisement from July 5, 1828 with these eleven slave names and prices listed, as well as, the amount and prices of cows, hogs, and cotton. From this, he brought the slaves to life giving them faces, jobs, experiences, and dreams.



Meet the Author/Illustrator:

Ashley Bryan

Ashley Bryan is an award winning author and illustrator. He is a three-time winner of the prestigious Coretta Scott King Award; recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award; a May Hill Arbuthnot lecturer, and a recipient of countless other awards. He is well-known for his art and books about African folktales. Some of his well-known books include: What a Wonderful World, Sail Away, Beautiful Blackbird, Pum Pum, and Ashley Bryan's Book of Puppets. He lives in Islesford, off the coast of Maine. Visit his website: https://ashleybryancenter.org/ to see more of his past work.

My Critique/Review:


This book was so beautifully written. Not only does it display the lives of real slaves, but it shows readers their faces, which is powerful. The illustrations of this book were so remarkable, eye-catching, and beautifully done. I love how Ashley Bryan incorporates the characters as slaves, but then also shows illustrations that represent their homelands and dreams. This book meets my expectations of a good children's book because it is interesting and engaging as the reader experiences life as a slave. It introduces each individual slave, giving each of them importance, and then discusses their journey and connection to one another. Lastly, it incorporates characters that continue to dream and have hope, during a time where their lives and freedoms have been taken away from them. This book displays slavery from the perspective of a slave, showing readers that slaves have real lives and are human beings too. I think students would really enjoy the stories and illustrations that this book exhibits.

Thoughts:


When reading this book, some themes I noticed were: slavery, hope, freedom, and relationships. The whole books is centered around slavery, as it introduces the 11 characters, their experiences, and their dreams while enslaved. In this book, Ashley Bryan first introduces the slaves and their jobs on the plantation, but then, discusses their hopes and dreams of freedom, relating back to their homelands and experiences. Stephen, the second slave discussed in the book, thinks back to his homeland and ancestors from Zimbabwe, as well as, mentions his dreams of "a proper marriage in a free land. Our children then would not be owned by others, slaves for life. They would be our children free for life" (Bryan, 2016, pg. 11). Furthermore, freedom is a word that comes up on every characters' page when they are thinking about their dreams. Each slave is longing for freedom and is hopeful that the day will come. On page 18, John, a 16 year old boy, says "My thoughts of escaping to freedom grow stronger every day" (Bryan, 2016). Lastly, relationships are shown throughout this book. Stephen and Jane love each other and dream of a future together; Stephen and Jane act like John's parents; Charlotte is Dora's mother; Bacus and Charlotte are married; Qush and Mulvina are close friends from their last plantation; and all of the slaves lend help to one another like family. These relationships help keep them motivated and committed, meaning survival in an enslaved environment. Overall, I think the idea of relationships in this book show readers that even in captivity when your whole life is controlled, humans still desire and need loving relationships and connections.

One thing I loved about this book was the illustrations. They were made out of pen, ink, and watercolor, plus collaged photo-reproductions of historical deeds. Ashley Bryan did an amazing job of capturing each individual slave, their life experiences, and their dreams into his illustrations. I love the detail that he used from the background clippings, to the intricate clothing details, to the facial expressions and attention to detail, Ashely did a phenomenal job. On each page when a new character is first introduced, they are represented by a dull, emotionless picture of their face, with clippings in the background that represent aspects of slavery. One thing I noticed about each character's picture is the lines that run through their face. This reminds me of the rings on a tree trunk which represent growth and aging. After each character is introduced, the author describes the character's dream. On these pages, Ashley Bryan creates a colorful, vibrant, happy, and hopeful picture, with the characters smiling and in high spirits. On page 16, the illustrator represents Jane's dream with aspects of her African culture: dress, earrings, hair styles, musical instruments (Bryan, 2016). Ashley Bryan does a great job of tying in their African heritage, making their dreams and longing for freedom seem so real. The illustrations do a wonderful job of representing the author's writing, expressing the characters' emotions to readers. Lastly, the illustrations in this book can be thoroughly analyzed and reveal the deeper meaning than just the print literacy that readers see first when reading. This idea is one of the 5 factors discussed in the article, Discussing Racial Trauma Using Visual Thinking Strategies, to "promote collective healing and agency through the sharing of trauma related texts" (Gardner, 2017, pg. 341). One area of deeper meaning that I observed is the clippings in the background of the images. If you look closely, you can observe pieces of the estate appraisement document, slave images, newspaper clippings, and auction documents. I think this was a really great detail that Ashley Bryan added in, further representing these characters as slaves.



When thinking about how I would connect this book to the classroom, I would first explore the book: "To Be a Slave" by Julius Lester and Tom Feelings. This book from the educator's guide from A Crack in the Sea's author, H.M. Bouwman's website, tells stories about what it is like to be a slave, their forced journey from Africa, and their passion for freedom, told from the lives of slaves (Anderson & Cappy, n.d.). After exploring this book, I would have students chose a slave's story that stood out to them in the book. Then, I would have students write a persona poem from this slave's perspective. Their poem can discuss aspects of the slaves life before slavery, their journey, hardships, or their desire for freedom. Students can create this poem any way they would like. By doing this, this allows students to think more deeply about the text, jump into their character's life, better understand their journey, and create a sense of empathy for their character. After students write their poem, I would have students record it onto an audio file and create a digital PowerPoint book, just as they did in the article, The Voices of Children: Re-imagining the Internment of Japanese Americans through Poetry. (Frye & Hash, 2013). From this, the class would have an assortment of written and digital I-AM poems from the perspective of enslaved people. Lastly, I think a book like this is so pivotal to include in the classroom because like Gardner's article states: "The best books for kids are written in blood. These stories explore social, physical, and emotional violence. They can expose wounds, create new questions, or reify our greatest fears" (Gardner, 2017, pg. 341). So, this is why incorporating books that talk about all perspectives of hard subjects like slavery, are important to include in the classroom.

Making Connections:


After reading this book, I was able to make connections between this book and the book: Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford and R. Gregory Christie. Both of these books, which are Coretta Scott King Honor Books, discuss the time period where Africans were taken from their homelands and forced to be slaves on plantations. Both books touch on the work that slaves had to endure such as: picking crops, working in the fields, cooking, and cleaning clothes. Furthermore, both books discuss how slaves kept ties with their heritage, showing African clothing, musical instruments, and dances. Not forgetting their past allowed the slaves to continue living and having hope. Both books also discuss some of the same topics: runaway slaves, prayer, and freedom, prominent topics relating to slavery. Lastly, both books incorporated how the slaves dreamed, kept a positive attitude, and pushed through the hardships. The slaves in Freedom Over Me, looked forward to being free one day and in Freedom in Congo Square, the slaves looked forward to Sundays where they could go to the square and be 'free' for the day (Weatherford & Christie, 2016).


My Persona Poem:


I have been forced from my home because it is war-torn and exposed, leaving nothing left for me there.


All around me I can hear the calmness and serenity of the ocean blue

but inside of me I must endure my racing thoughts that engross my mind.


I cope by daydreaming and letting my imagination run free. Most of the time, however, I choose the wrong situations to let my mind take a vacation.


My greatest fear is being a disappointment to those around me

Because everyday I live with being a disappointment to my father. Oh how I wish I could turn back time.


When I find my mind wandering to my past life,

I long for my parents, my mixed faith, and my home in Vietnam.


What I most need to hear is that I am not a screw up or 'scatterbrained'

Because I am supportive, protective, observant, and imaginative.


What I would tell others like me is to have confidence in yourself

Because you never know, you may be the next storyteller of Raftworld.



When creating this poem, I started out by choosing my character, Thanh, and reviewing my notes that I took on him as I read the book. I focused on his appearance, his goals, his relationships, his personality, and the events that took place in his life. I then used one of the templates in the article: Walking Into the Wardrobe and Through the Sliding Glass Door: Writing Persona Poems with A Crack in the Sea, to guide me. After staring at my notes and the template, with ideas circulating in my head, I was lost on how to begin writing. I had many things I wanted to say, however, I could not fit them into the template wording. After a couple minutes of thought, I found the right wording for line one, and then the poem just came out of me from there. As I read each line stem, my thoughts flowed right through my fingers into words. Soon enough, I had completed my poem.

Reading the two articles: Walking Into the Wardrobe and Through the Sliding Glass Door: Writing Persona Poems with A Crack in the Sea and The Voices of Children: Re-imagining the Internment of Japanese Americans through Poetry, really helped me in writing this poem. Not only did they provide templates to follow, but they explained the process that students took in writing these poems, as well as, the importance of them. The article "Walking Into the Wardrobe and Through the Sliding Glass Door", describes the importance of taking an aesthetic stance when writing these poems. This allows readers, turned writers, "to think more deeply about the literature, build affinity with 'others', cultivate the capacity for compassion, confront misconceptions and injustices, and cross perceived cultural boundaries" (Frye, Hardin, Bouwman & Stumb, 2018, pg. 46). Furthermore, in the article "The Voices of Children", I was introduced to a step by step process that can be used in the classroom when writing I-Am poems. This article goes on to mention the importance of these activities by stating: "Writing innovations like these perspective recognition activities, in which students interpret, manipulate, and transform ideas, often lead to a greater understanding of the content" (Frye & Hash, 2013, pg. 31). I found myself relating to this quote when writing my persona poem. By really focusing on Thanh's life, his experiences, and his emotions, I was better able to understand him as a character and his contributions to the story. Once I was able to really understand Thanh and develop empathy for him, it made writing this perspective poem easier.


Useful Links:


Sources:


Anderson, C. M. & Cappy, K. (n.d.). A Crack in the Sea: A Guide for Educators and Readers. Retrieved from https://hmbouwman.com/wp-

Ashley Bryan. Photo of Author/Illustrator Ashley Bryan. Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, by A. Saxon, 2014, Retrieved from

Bryan, A. (2016). Freedom Over Me. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division.


Frye, E. M., Hardin, B. L., Bouwman, H.M., & Stumb, A. E. (2018). Walking Into the Wardrobe and Through the Sliding Glass Door: Writing Persona Poems with A Crack in the Sea. Voices from the Middle, 26(2), 46-52.


Frye, E. M. & Hash, L. A. (2013). The Voices of Children: Re-imagining the Internment of Japanese Americans through Poetry. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 24(4), 30-32.


Gardner, R. P. (2017). Discussing Racial Trauma Using Visual Thinking Strategies. Language Arts, 94(5), 338-345.


Weatherford, C. B. & Christie, R. G. (2016). Freedom in Congo Square. New York, New York: Little Bee Books.


73 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page