A Picture of Freedom

by Patricia C. McKissack

  Even the United States Constitution contained a fugitive slave clause. Most slaves who managed to reach a free state could live as a free person. But with the passage of the revised Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the government allowed slaveholders to go into free states and recapture their “property.”

  In 1854, Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave, was arrested and jailed in Boston, Massachusetts, but Bostonians attacked the federal courthouse and attempted to rescue him. Burns was returned to his master, but he was later freed. Burns’ case, and others like his, brought the issue of slavery to the forefront.

  As early as 1688, a group of Pennsylvania Quakers signed the “Germantown Mennonite Resolution Against Slavery.” It was the first written document that protested slavery in the North American colonies and marked the beginning of a formalized abolitionist movement. Since that time, blacks and whites, men and women, Southerners and Northerners organized with the purpose of abolishing slavery. One of the largest and most effective of these organizations was the American Anti-Slavery Society, founded in Philadelphia in 1833. New York, Philadelphia, and Boston were the centers of the movement, but anti-slavery groups flourished all over the country.

  William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass spoke out strongly against slavery. Women such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Sojourner Truth also made an impact through their lectures and writing. Truth had been enslaved in New York, one of the last Northern states to abolish slavery. Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold out its first printing in less than a week because people were fascinated by her depiction of slave life. Southerners tried to argue that the book was fiction, but people read it as fact.

  To help runaways make the long and dangerous trip to freedom, often to Canada, abolitionists formed a network of people who served as “conductors” on an “underground railroad.” It was not underground and it wasn’t a railroad, but a route by which slaves were taken to freedom. Good and decent people — farmers, teachers, housewives, laborers, college presidents, and even children — risked heavy fines and imprisonment to take part in this dangerous venture. Some conductors were caught and served time in prison but nothing could stop people from running away from tyranny or assisting those who would try.

  One of the best-known conductors on the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman, a fugitive slave. Although there was a price on her head, she continued to serve as a conductor, leading hundreds of runaways to freedom in Canada.

  Slaveholders had their sights on the fertile lands out West. They wanted to expand slavery west of the Mississippi River. Abolitionists were determined to stop them. Dred Scott, a Missouri slave, sued his master for freedom because he had been taken to live for a while in free territory. The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1857 that a slave could not sue for his freedom because he was “property.” The court added that “no black man had rights that a white man [had] to respect.” The decision was a bitter defeat for anti-slavery forces, because it disenfranchised all blacks — whether free or slave. Now, neither could vote, hold public office, patent an invention, serve on a jury, or testify against a white person in any court of law. African Americans were not considered citizens.

  While most abolitionists chose to end slavery through peaceful means, some were beginning to think that slavery could not end without an armed struggle. Henry Highland Garnet was an outspoken black leader who called for violent resistance to slavery long before anyone else agreed with him. Another man who believed that freedom would have to be won by the sword was John Brown.

  In October 1859, John Brown, along with five blacks and thirteen whites, led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in Virginia (now located in West Virginia). Brown planned to organize a slave army made up of fugitives who would fight for their own freedom. Their success would inspire others to take up arms. Colonel Robert E. Lee led the federal counterattack. Most of Brown’s men were killed in the fight. One man escaped. John Brown and several others were captured and hanged. Before he died, Brown warned the South to end slavery or risk God’s wrath.

  To anti-slavery sympathizers Brown had become a hero, a martyr. Songs were written about him and schoolchildren honored him. In the South, Brown was dismissed as a madman, symbolic of all abolitionists.

  The South was confident in 1859 that their way of life would go on indefinitely. But change was inevitable. The Republicans were a new political party, organized in 1854. In less than five years they had won numerous seats in Congress. Abraham Lincoln from Illinois was nominated to run for the presidency on the Republican ticket. He stood a fair chance of winning the 1860 election. His position seemed moderate, nothing radical. He supported Congressional prohibition of slavery in Western territories and the gradual abolition of slavery in the United States. Some abolitionist groups felt Lincoln’s position was not strong enough. Some leaders, especially in Virginia, realized that slavery could not last much longer and the gradual approach seemed plausible. Sadly, these people were in the minority. South Carolina declared that if Lincoln won the election, the state would secede from the Union.

  Meanwhile political posturing had done very little to ease the lives of the 4,000,000 slaves who lived on the plantations throughout the South. Most of them lived in miserable conditions, yet they never lost hope. It is reflected in the songs they sang:

  Swing low, sweet chariot,

  Comin’ for to carry me home.

  A band of angels comin’ after me.

  Comin’ for to carry me home.

  The words were coded. “Home” was freedom. The “sweet chariot” was a wagon or some vehicle that they hoped would take them to freedom. The “band of angels” were the abolitionists. Slaves sang songs for many reasons. Often, their singing was misunderstood as a display of happiness and contentment.

  The conditions under which a slave lived depended largely upon the personality of his master. Planters were the masters of their estates who conducted their affairs autonomously. Their wives, children, and slaves were under their authority and could be treated any way the planters chose within the limits of the law (and the laws were always in the slaveholders’ favor).

  The mistress of the plantation was generally younger than her husband, sometimes by as much as twenty years. Girls married at fourteen and were expected to have children as soon as possible. But the rearing of the children was usually left to slave women who nursed and cared for them through infancy.

  The master’s children grew up on the plantation and sometimes played with slave children because there were no other children around. Sometimes slave children were half brothers and sisters, sharing the same father. Loneliness caused some mistresses to select a slave woman to be her confidante and companion. The relationship was rarely allowed to develop into real friendship.

  Each situation was as unique as the people who were involved.

  In 1859 most slaveholders owned no more than twenty-five to thirty field hands and four to five household servants who took care of the family’s personal needs. Field slaves’ lives were filled with endless misery and suffering. Death was welcomed. They worked from sunup until sundown, driven by fear and brutality. Their diets were poor, and so was their health care. People aged early and died too young. Children died needless deaths and the elderly were turned out to fend for themselves when they were no longer useful. The huts the slaves lived in were small, crowded, and filthy, and up to as many as ten people would sleep in one 20’ × 20’ cabin.

  Those servants who worked in the “Big House” had a few advantages, but there were even more disadvantages. As grand as the old mansions were, they didn’t have any of the modern conveniences we take for granted today. Work in the Big House never ceased. Servants were expected to do all the washing, ironing, cooking, serving of food, cleaning, caring for children, and even fanning. House slaves were on call twenty-four hours a day.

  Even though every effort was made to keep slaves ignorant, many of them learned to read and write, using any opportunity available to them.
Then they, in turn, taught others. Secret teachers — who were sometimes disguised abolitionists, free blacks, or fellow slaves — formed “pit schools.” They dug a hole large enough for two to four people. They pulled a lid made of brush over the top. Down in the pit they practiced their lessons with less chance of being caught.

  Being discovered was an ever-present danger. Literate slaves were usually sold to the Deep South where escape was nearly impossible. Gabriel Prosser and Nat Turner were literate men who had led rebellions in Richmond, and Southampton, Virginia. Slaveowners knew they were outnumbered on some rural plantations, so masters stayed on the lookout for budding insurrections. They used bribery, threats, and fear to coerce slaves into betraying anyone who might appear suspicious. It was not uncommon for the informer to end up being sold himself.

  Frederick Douglass, publisher of The North Star, wrote in his autobiography that “no man who can read will stay a slave very long.”

  Sojourner Truth, who had been a slave in New York, said, “Slavery must be destroyed. God will not stand with wrong, never mind how right you think you be.”

  And Harriet Tubman said, “I mean to live free or die.”

  Emboldened by the spirit of these and other freedom fighters, the stage was set for slaves who dared to defy their masters.

  People didn’t know in 1859 that the nation was on the threshold of a terrible war that would kill thousands. But the unfolding political drama would climax when Edmund Ruffin, Sr., a Virginian, fired the first shot at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, a few months after Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. The war ended five years later in 1865. The cost had been high on both sides. The lives of the 4,000,000 slaves living in the United States and the 250,000 fugitive slaves that had escaped to Canada would be changed forever.

  They were free at last.

  The cabins in the slave quarters could be as small as 12’ × 12’ or 12’ × 16'. They were made of wood with dirt floors and windows without panes. They had to accommodate about ten to twelve people.

  Work in the fields was grueling. And slaves rarely had enough to eat to sustain them through the long, exhausting days.

  Five generations of slaves on a Carolina plantation.

  Slave mothers and children were often separated by plantation owners who held little regard for their family relationships, as this illustration depicts.

  Slaves had to carry special passes, such as this one written by Jefferson Davis, if they went anywhere beyond the boundaries of their plantation. Without a pass, they were assumed to be attempting escape and would be severely beaten.

  Slave trading, like animal trading, was considered a business. This broadside announces a raff le with two prizes: a horse and a slave.

  Posters announcing a reward for the capture and return of runaway slaves were very common.

  Harriet Beecher Stowewrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852 to expose slavery as “a system so … cruel and unjust.” By 1856, over two million copies had been sold, second only to the Bible in sales. When President Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he said, “So you’re the little lady who started this big war.”

  Charles T. Webber’s famous nineteenth-century painting, The Underground Railroad, depicts refugee slaves arriving at Levi Coffin’s Indiana farm, an important station on the railroad.

  A pass for the Underground Railroad. It reads: “My Dear Mrs. Post: Please shelter this Sister from the house of bondage till five o’clock — this afternoon — She will then be sent on to the land of freedom. Yours truly, Fred K.” Fred K. was Frederick Douglass, the famous escaped slave. He became a well-known lecturer and founded the abolitionist newspaper The North Star.

  Harriet Tubman was the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. A runaway slave from Maryland, she made about twenty trips from the North into the South and rescued more than three hundred slaves.

  A freed slave, Sojourner Truth was one of the most famous abolitionists and activists for the rights of blacks and women. Although she was illiterate, Truth could quote the Bible word for word and was a powerful and affecting preacher.

  Words and music to “Go Down, Moses.” While slaveowners believed religion had a placating effect on slaves, the Bible and its stories were a great source of strength and inspiration to seek freedom. In this traditional negro spiritual, the slaves identified with the Jews of Egypt who were also held in bondage by the cruel Pharaoh. Harriet Tubman was said to be the Moses of the slaves’ song, helping runaway slaves escape from “Egypt’s land.”

  This recipe is based on information from slave narratives and plantation diaries.

  Modern map of the continental United States, showing the approximate location of Belmont Plantation, near Richmond, Virginia.

  This map shows escape routes on the Underground Railroad, as well as which were slave states and which were free states in 1859.

  About the Author

  Award-winning author Patricia C. McKissack says, “I was inspired to write A Picture of Freedom by the story I grew up hearing about my great-great-great-grandmother, Lizzie Passmore, who had been a slave in Barbour County, Alabama. Although it was against the law, she had someow learned to read and write. After the Civil War ended, she started teaching children in her home near Clayton, Alabama. Unfortunately that is all I know about this remarkable woman, but it gave me the foundation upon which I built Clotee’s story.”

  Although this is McKissack’s first full-length work of fiction, she has written over sixty books for children, including Flossie and the Fox, Mirandy and Brother Wind, a Caldecott Honor Book, and The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural, a Newbery Honor Book. She has co-authored with her husband, Fredrick, numerous nonfiction books, which include the Coretta Scott King Award winners, Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman? and Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters. She also co-authored with her son, Fredrick, Jr., Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues, which was a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. And together with her husband and son, McKissack has written the Clone Codes series.

  While researching Christmas in the Big House, the McKissacks visited six plantations in the Tidewater area of Virginia. “It was natural for me to set the Clotee story there because it was so fresh in my mind and we had tons of material that found a place in this book.”

  McKissack says her teaching experiences helped her understand how Clotee might have learned to read and write. “Finding Clotee’s voice was the most difficult problem I had to overcome. Once I heard, in my head, how she would say things, then the story was easy to tell. She told it to me.”

  McKissack lives with her husband in Chesterfield, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. When they aren’t traveling for research, they travel for fun.

  Acknowledgments

  Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to use the following:

  Cover portrait by Tim O’Brien.

  Cover background: Belmont Plantation, Winslow Williams Photographic Collection (VC 0003). Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, Va., with permission from Toll Brothers. Today, Belmont Country Club is owned by Toll Brothers, who restored it to its 1920s grandeur. The Manor House now comprises 7,000 square feet of Belmont’s private clubhouse, including the foyer, formal dining room, living porch, library, conservatory, bridal suite, and conference rooms.

  Slave cabin, The Library of Congress.

  Cotton pickers, ibid.

  Slave family, Schomburg Center/Art Resource, New York, New York.

  Slave mother separated from her child, Culver Pictures, Long Island City, New York.

  Visitation pass, The Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia.

  Raffle poster for a horse and “a Mulatto Girl, Sarah.” PR031, Bella C. Landauer Collection of Business and Advertising Ephemera, negative number 43431, Collection of The New-York Historical Society, New York, New York.

  Reward poster, The Library of Congress.

  Uncle Tom’s Cabin, “The Greatest Book of the Age,” adv
ertisement poster, negative number 38219. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, New York, New York.

  The Underground Railroad by Charles T. Webber, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio.

  Pass for the Underground Railroad, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Rochester Library, Rochester, New York.

  Harriet Tubman, The Library of Congress.

  Sojourner Truth, The Library of Congress.

  Words and music to “Go Down, Moses,” from Songs of the Civil War, Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, New York.

  Recipe, courtesy of the author, based on information from slave narratives and plantation diaries.

  Map by Jim McMahon.

  Map by Heather Saunders.

  Other books in the Dear America series

  Copyright

  While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Clotee is a fictional character, created by the author, and her diary and its epilogue are works of fiction.

  Copyright © 1997 by Patricia C. McKissack

  Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi

  Cover portrait by Tim O’Brien, © 2011 Scholastic Inc.

  Cover background: Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA, with permission from Toll Brothers

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