Reviews for From Slave Ship to Freedom Road

The average rating for From Slave Ship to Freedom Road based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-10-18 00:00:00 George Freiberger In a visually and emotionally provocative picture book for mature older children and young adults, Julius Lester provides text to go with twenty-two powerful, boldly coloured oil paintings by artist Rod Brown from his exhibit From Slavery to Freedom. Some of Brown's images are of terrible things'bodies of Africans, who did not survive the Middle Passage, bobbing in the sea; the bleeding welts on a slave's back; and the silhouette of a hanged slave'and the author uses some charged language to accompany these pictures. Lester pushes his readers with probing questions and mental exercises. He asks them to imagine themselves into the experiences of slaves: their transport from West Africa to the New World, their sale at auction, their work in plantation fields and houses, their attempts at running away, participation in the American Civil War, and finally their release from slavery by Lincoln's 1862 Emancipation Proclamation or by the later arrival of Union soldiers. Some of Lester's questions are intended to encourage empathy: "How would I feel if that happened to me?" Some ask readers to look more closely at the paintings and to imagine what the painted figures are thinking or talking about. Still others challenge young people to confront "something more difficult"'for example, what it was like to be "not the victim, but the aggressor." Lester observes: "We may think that we would never whip someone until their flesh cried blood. But what if you would not be punished for doing it? What if your peers approved and deemed you honorable and good for beating someone?" Regarding the principled white people who assisted fugitive slaves to the northern states or Canada, the author asks: "Would you risk going to jail to help someone you didn't know? Would you risk losing your freedom to help someone not of your race?" Thinking about this short, forty-paged book, I find it remarkable how much Lester has managed to pack in. Not only does he cover a great deal of American history, but he also considers larger moral and ethical questions about the importance of stories'those that diminish and those that empower, what it means to be human, and what freedom consists of. "Freedom from slavery was not the same as freedom to do whatever they [slaves] wanted." It is "a promise we are still learning to keep."

Review # 2 was written on 2018-02-08 00:00:00 Chris Lyman "Nigger.They called us that from our first cry to our last breath. It ain't nothing but a word, some might say, but words hurt like whips and they leave scars you can't see and what don't never heal." (Pg.12) Powerful, beautiful, and so real'this illustrated history of slavery is a gem for real I am so glad I decided to read this nonfiction selection I mistakenly on first glance designated as a readaloud but after going through it realize it is definitely more of a research text and one to savor and enjoy not a story per se but a documentation of the hardship and heartache of Africans being taken from their home, stripped of all they know...A people existing at the mercy of those who saw them as less than and property to do with as they wish..It is definitely the most gut wrenching, senseless and emotionally shameful portions of history I feel I can never know enough about..this slave trade from 1518 to 1865 according to this book..You don't have to know much to empathize with this horror and the illustrations really take you there and it was a truly engaging experience..The writing here is top notch with questions and experiences that really make you think and visualize how you would feel and what makes being a descendant from a slave a shameful and not a prideful fact for all African Americans… "All of us need to understand who we are and what our place is in the scheme of things. Through stories we alight on the meaning and significance of our lives." (Pg.27) "The only way to cross over fear is to do what you are afraid of doing." (Pg. 30) "Ultimately no one can free anyone else. You have to free yourself. Somebody else can unlock the door and even push it ajar, but they can't walk through it for you. You have to do that." (Pg. 35) This book was amazing, so powerful and so honest about its depiction of African Americans and their plight'there are engaging exercises, hypotheticals and examples of empathy you can teach with or read upon for reflection..I learned a lot from this one and hope my scholars can to..A well-deserved Five Star read and my first of the year!'highly recommended for sure!