Up From Freedom
Page 34
Since then I have been aided and encouraged by a great many friends, including Toronto filmmaker Louis Taylor, whose film Ester, Baby and Me was an early inspiration; Lawrence Hill, while he was delivering the 2013 Massey Lectures on the subject of Blood; the ever-effervescent Derek Burrows, whose documentary film Before the Trees Was Strange, about color and family in the Bahamas, helped shape my ideas about racial self-identity; and Sonny Sadinsky, who brought me into the Queen’s University law library in Kingston, where I learned that Leason and Sarah’s ordeal was far from unique.
The writing was made easier by the generosity of the Canada Council for the Arts, particularly through its sponsorship of the Writer-in-Residence program at Haig-Brown House, in Campbell River, BC. My thanks to Ken Blackburn and Andrew Nikiforuk, who made my stay there a pleasure. And to the largesse of Amazon.ca, whose prize money from the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, given to my previous novel, helped to finance the writing of this one.
I am indebted to my agent, Anne McDermid, who has been patient and enthusiastic throughout this long process. I have received valuable editorial guidance at Doubleday Canada from Nita Pronovost, before she moved to a different publisher, and then from Martha Kanya-Forstner. But it has been my editor, Zoe Maslow, who has most helped me to deepen and expand this novel, and to see things in it I didn’t know were there. Thank you, also, to Beverley Sotolov, whose copyediting found a few other things I didn’t know were there. And to Brad Martin, Kristin Cochrane, Amy Black, and especially Shona Cook, for their continuing friendship and support.
Louis Taylor once told me, “In the end, all you have to rely on is your family and your community.” And so, to my own deepening and expanding family, I extend illimitable gratitude; they are my reason and my inspiration. And of course, as ever, to Merilyn.
UP
FROM
FREEDOM
READING GROUP GUIDE
How does your perception of Moody change throughout the book, and why? Do you think he ever becomes aware of his complicity in the cycle of slavery?
Moody falls in love with three different women over the course of the novel: Annie, Rachel and Tamsey. What does he learn from each relationship?
“It was time for him to stop acting surprised and indignant whenever anyone suggested to him that the reason he hadn’t freed Annie or Lucas was that he had liked it that their relationship was based on ownership, that that was the way he’d been raised, and, hate it though he professed he did, it was the relationship he understood and felt comfortable with.” What do you, the reader, gain by seeing this family relationship—Moody, Annie and Lucas—from different points of view?
In the novel, we see how slavery travels across generations, impacting each one differently over time. How does slavery impact Annie differently than it does Lucas? What about Tamsey and her children? How do you think the history of slavery has impacted the current generation of African-Americans and African-Canadians?
Moody notes that black people in the north “are free blacks—a designation that usually signifies a man is free from slavery, but that here has come to mean also a man who works for free. Or for wages so low that he can’t afford to do anything about his situation.” Do you think Moody’s observation has any merit? Is it possible to have the legal rights of a free person, but to still lack freedom?
Moody is fascinated by geology—by changes in nature over time, how the natural world is a product of these changes, and how all these changes leave a trace on the Earth. In what ways do memory and human history resemble geology? Is it ever possible to escape our past? How do we reconcile ourselves with our shared history?
Parts of Up From Freedom are meant to raise ethical and philosophical questions for the reader without necessarily providing answers. What questions did the novel raise for you? Do you think those questions are relevant in the current global climate?
Mr. Kastchen tells Moody that many people who oppose slavery—including the Religious Society of Friends—also oppose the Underground Railroad, believing that the most effective way to end slavery is through political channels and legal change. “The Society believes that helping a few thousand individuals into Canada is nothing compared to freeing four million with the stroke of a pen, but the way I see it, our few thousand will still be alive when the changes come, if it does, whereas if we didn’t help them, they almost certainly would not be.” When is it better to take legal routes to enact change, and when might it be necessary to take direct action? How does one decide? Where does one draw the line?
There are horrific scenes of violence against black people throughout the novel—how did the writing affect you?
As you read Up From Freedom you meet many characters and then have to say goodbye to them without knowing what their fate will be. What does this sense of unease do to you as you’re reading? Why do you think Grady does this?
What conclusions about racial divisions based on skin color can be drawn from the trial?
At the trial, Tamsey finally gets to tell her story. What effect do you think it has on the outcome of the trial? What effect does her story have on you?
Tamsey advises Moody that, rather than simply freeing the slaves on his Georgia plantation, he should ask them what they want. Why do you think she says that? Is it fair to ask the oppressed to come up with their own solutions to the problems of racism? Or is it better to impose the oppressor’s concept of freedom on those who seek social change?
“Nothing was forgiven. Somethings were forgotten, but damn few, and only for a time. But nothing is ever forgiven.” This was Moody’s internal struggle throughout the novel. Do you agree with Moody? Why or why not?
Who would you recommend Up From Freedom to? Why?