How can I live with biblical principles and values?
How can I make choices based on those principles and values?
And how can I encourage others to do the same?
The Freedom Seekers series weaves together fictional characters with carefully researched people who lived or were known in 1857. Each novel stands alone but is best read in sequence to see the growth of characters and relationships. A new character, Peter, who is deaf, joins the Christina family in the fourth book.
Prepare students for reading each novel by talking about the cover. With Midnight Rescue you might want to ask, “Why do you think Libby, Caleb, and Jordan are running? What do you suppose they’re thinking? Who are the two men behind them?”
Then encourage your students to just enjoy reading the story. If needed, they can take random notes to help them find details for later use, but ask them to wait when answering questions or doing activities. After reading a book through, students can return to it and glean added information to answer study questions or do other activities.
Each study guide gives you the ability to move through the questions and activities at a pace that is right for your students. Topics are organized in sections such as talking about the story, making choices, being a never-give-up family, following God’s leading, discussing ideas about freedom, ideas for written or oral responses, and digging deeper sections for students who want to study further.
Your own love of reading may be one of your strongest motivators for encouraging others to read. That love and the discernment that follows will become an important gift you offer the children and young people you influence.
Whether you read these novels aloud, as a group, or your students read them individually, I hope that all of you enjoy them. May each of you also be blessed by growing deeper in your walk as a Freedom Seeker.
With warm regards,
Lois Walfrid Johnson
The Midnight Rescue Folks
FICTIONAL CHARACTERS
LIBBY NORSTAD: In the dark of night the Christina slipped away from the city of St. Paul, Minnesota. Now, as they steam up the St. Croix River to Stillwater, Libby feels the excitement. Adventure, that’s what this is. Living on Pa’s steamboat is an adventure! Every boy and girl I know would like to be where I am. But moments later she asks Caleb, “When does adventure become trouble?” Libby longs to help Jordan’s family escape from slavery. But then she makes a very big mistake that could cost Jordan his life. Can she possibly be trusted to help with something as dangerous as the Underground Railroad?
CAPTAIN NATHANIEL NORSTAD, LIBBY’S FATHER: As captain and owner of the steamboat Christina, Nathaniel Norstad stands tall against the thieves, swindlers, and other threats that would hurt his passengers. He also has a caring heart. Out of his strong belief in helping fugitive slaves, Captain Norstad puts himself at risk of losing the Christina. Yet he continues to stand strong for what he believes. Can he also help the Red Shirts in a time of danger?
CALEB WHITNEY: Blue eyes, blond hair that falls down over his forehead, slender, tall. Fourteen, nearly 15 years old, Caleb is a year older than Libby and Pa’s cabin boy on the Christina. An Underground Railroad conductor since the age of 9, Caleb has built a reputation as a person people can trust. More than once, Libby has noticed how good Caleb is about hiding feelings from slave catchers. But his secret work brings him into danger, and many adults, including Gran, feel concerned for Caleb’s safety.
RACHEL (GRANNY OR GRAN) WHITNEY: Caleb’s grandmother has cared for him since the death of his parents. Gran is Libby’s go-to person when she’s upset and needs help. Gran acts like a good mom, but also says, “Some secrets aren’t meant for keeping. What if someone does something wrong and says you can’t tell on them?” But has Libby given away another kind of secret? The kind of secret that could betray people all along the route of the Underground Railroad?
JORDAN PARKER: Born into slavery, Jordan doesn’t know when his birthday is, nor his exact age. But he wants his birthday to be the day he knows his daddy is free. When Libby feels scared about Jordan trying to rescue his family, she asks Caleb, “How do you know if it’s really God talking to Jordan?” A good mechanic and strong singer, Jordan is prepared for creating what is needed and for using code songs. What’s more, he knows the Lord has given him strong hands and strong feet and a heart big enough to lead his people to freedom. But what about the unexpected?
Father: Micah Parker: Gifted in his knowledge and understanding of horses, he taught Jordan everything he knew. Because of that, Jordan knows he has value.
Mother: Hattie: Prays all night for her family.
11-year-old sister Serena: Quick to understand and follow Peddler Paul’s instructions.
8-year-old brother Zack: Special friend to Jonathan, the Weavers’ son.
3-year-old sister Rose: What might happen if a young child cries at the wrong time?
NATE JOHNSON: Friend of Caleb’s, lives on farm outside Stillwater, MN.
RED SHIRTS: Loggers working on the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers. Why do you think they wear red shirts?
AUNTIE VI THORNTON: A sister of Libby’s mother, but very unlike her. Vi took care of Libby from when her mother died until recently when Libby joined her father to live on the Christina. Libby knows how Auntie Vi really feels about her: “I’m ready to give up on that girl.”
UNCLE ALEXANDER THORNTON: Husband of Vi and a businessman in Chicago.
MR. BATES: The first mate on the Christina. Do we need to suspect him for an important reason?
OSBORNE: Chief engineer on the steamboat Christina, Osborne is kind, welcoming, and a helpful person to know.
FLETCHER: Quick-thinking pilot of the Steamboat Christina, Fletcher’s ability at the wheel is greatly needed in times of danger. In an emergency can even Fletcher do enough?
MR. RIGGS: A cruel slave trader, short in height, but slender, wiry, wears the finest threepiece suit that money can buy, carries a cane with gold head that is not needed for walking. Cold blue eyes. The cruelest man that Libby has ever seen, Riggs brags that no slave ever got away from him alive.
REPORTER: Writing for the Stillwater, Minnesota, newspaper. Will the article he writes affect what happens to Jordan?
CHARLIE SWENSON: Good Scandinavian name. Almost as bad as Johnson.
ESCAPED PRISONER: From Minnesota’s Territorial Prison in Stillwater, Sam McGrady definitely had a bad hair day. What’s more, he went to prison for being part of a gang that robbed banks in Minnesota Territory and state of Iowa. If Jordan tries to rescue his family can McGrady be trusted? And what about the man who travels with him?
PAUL MARTIN: Peddler and Underground Railroad conductor. When Pa introduces Libby, saying, “Paul, this is my daughter,” the peddler promises, “I’ll take good care of her, Captain.”
MR. WEAVER and his WIFE, DOROTHY
Weaver Children:
Melanie: oldest child.
Jonathan: Zack’s special friend, and the only boy Jonathan knows who doesn’t tell him he’s fat.
Randolph: cared for when a baby by Hattie, Jordan’s mother.
SLAVE CATCHERS: No names given.
SAMSON: Libby’s dog, a Newfoundland, better known today as a Newfie. Black coat with white patches on nose, muzzle, chest, and tips of toes. By now Samson has become Libby’s friend, as well as a blanket bearer.
HISTORIC CHARACTERS
This series is a place where you can bump into all kinds of famous people….
FOX RIVER OUTLAWS: Bands of thieves with many good hiding places in the Missouri woods.
MAJOR DAVID McKEE: Founder of the Anti-Horse Thief Association.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PEARSON: The Pearson house in Keosauqua, Iowa, was a station on the Underground Railroad.
DR. EDWIN JAMES: Explorer and scientist. On an expedition to Colorado, he discovered plants and trees no one had named before. Also an army doctor and the first white man to climb Pikes Peak. For a time it was named after him. Dr. James also translated the Ne
w Testament into the Chippewa language. The James home was a station on the Underground Railroad.
THE FUGITIVE DICK: Caught when Dr. James was taking him across the Mississippi River. When Dick was thrown into jail, the judge challenged the fugitive slave laws and set Dick free. A thousand men walked with Dr. James and Dick down to the river to start him on his way to freedom.
DR. WILLIAM SALTER: Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Burlington, Iowa. A mighty man of God who understood the times and what to do in that moment of history.
For an introduction to more historic people working bravely for freedom in southeastern Iowa see the Acknowledgments.
THE STEAMBOAT CHRISTINA: Named after Captain Norstad’s wife and Libby’s mother. Except for the sidewheeler Christina, every steamboat in the Freedom Seekers series is historical.
Acknowledgments
Do you ever long to have a real-life hero or heroine? Someone you can look up to and respect? Someone you can admire, not only for what that person has done but also because of what that person is?
I suspect that most of us feel that way. We admire people who care about the beliefs we care about. We respect boys and girls and men and women who take a stand at the right place at the right time, even though it’s difficult.
Because of the need for secrecy, we will never know even a tiny fraction of all that happened through the work of the Underground Railroad. Yet we can be sure of one thing: Again and again, fugitive slaves, free blacks, and whites all worked together for one common goal—that not one passenger be lost.
As pioneers poured into southeastern Iowa, its citizens made countless choices that affected the history of the entire state. In the first novel of this series, Escape Into the Night, you met some of those history makers—Asa Turner, William Salter, Deacon Trowbridge, the Quakers of Salem, and the Congregational folks of Denmark and Burlington. All of these people risked much in order to live what they believed. Dr. Edwin James of Augusta, Iowa, was another such man.
Though internationally known for his work as a botanist, Dr. James lived an outwardly quiet life. When his neighbors needed a medical doctor, he helped them without accepting payment. On Sunday mornings he became a pastor. Yet, unknown to many people around him, Dr. James was shaping history.
The case of the fugitive slave named Dick was one of three important slavery trials in southeastern Iowa. In a time when many people were still deciding what they believed about slavery, Dr. James was not afraid to support his beliefs with action.
The third governor of Iowa, James Wilson Grimes, was another man who stood for the freedom of slaves. In writing to his wife about Dick’s Burlington trial in 1855, Governor Grimes talked about how few people in Des Moines County had opposed slavery only four years before. According to Grimes, those who expressed such opinions were treated as if they were pickpockets. The court decision about Dick, and the support of one thousand men who made sure that he got safely away, showed the change that had come to the Burlington area within a short period of time.
“Now I am Governor of the State,” said Grimes as he wrote about the fugitive slave law. “Three-fourths of the reading and reflecting people of the county agree with me in my sentiments on the law, and a slave could not be returned from Des Moines County into slavery.”
Because of the courage of those who lived for what they believed, the opinions of others had changed for good. Those newly formed beliefs shaped history. Yet in many areas of our country, people chose to live what they believed, even when those around them didn’t hold the same opinion. The fictional characters, Dorothy Weaver and her son Jonathan, represent adults and children who faced different opinions within their own families.
During the Civil War, Missouri was a land and people divided by their beliefs about slavery. In Clark County, Missouri, bitterness and bloodshed split apart entire families. On August 5, 1861, Missouri’s northernmost Civil War battle was fought at Athens, only a few miles from where this book is set. In that battle northeastern Missouri was won for the Union. But neighbor fought against neighbor and brother against brother. As Colonel David Moore led his pro-Union troops, two of his sons fought against him.
When the Iowa governor, James Wilson Grimes, became a United States senator, he took another unpopular stand. President Andrew Johnson was threatened by impeachment, and Senator Grimes chose to protect the Constitution. Though paralyzed by a stroke two days before, he insisted on being carried into the Senate on a stretcher. By his one vote it was decided that a President of the United States could not be removed from office simply because popular opinion went against him. In spite of great personal and political cost, James Wilson Grimes again changed the direction of history.
As you’ve read, the beautiful countryside of Clark County, Missouri, offered wonderful hideaways for outlaws during the 1850s and 1860s. Horse stealing was a serious problem. David McKee founded the Anti-Horse Thief Association to protect the property of others from theft, and especially from horse thieving. In contrast to groups that took the law into their own hands, the Anti-Horse Thief Association worked with law authorities to bring offenders to justice. By 1916 the group had grown to 50,000 members living in eleven states.
And what about the many escapes from the Minnesota Territorial Prison? A week or so after the time in which Libby, Caleb, and Jordan visited Stillwater, the Territorial legislature decided that the warden should not be held responsible for prisoners if the counties from which they came did not pay for their keep. As a result, some prisoners were set free.
In 1858 prison reform began. Today the Minnesota Correctional Facility–Stillwater is considered a model of modern correctional facilities.
Captain Stephen B. Hanks, cousin of Abraham Lincoln, is credited with being the first riverman to use a steamboat to raft logs downriver to the mills.
As I think about the writing of this book, I feel humbled by the help I have received from many people. One of these special individuals is Charles L. Blockson, curator of the Afro-American materials at Temple University, Philadelphia, and author of such books as The Underground Railroad. Thanks, Charles! At a crucial time you gave me just the encouragement I needed.
My gratitude to the people of Stillwater, Minnesota, one of my longtime favorite towns. Thanks to Kay and Bill Hieb for their willingness to share books and research, as well as showing me their favorite places. Thanks to the editors of the St. Croix Union; the Stillwater Public Library and its librarians; the Washington County Historical Society, especially its Warden’s House Museum and Arlene Nettekoven and Joan Daniels; historian and writer Brent Peterson, and his and Dean Thilgen’s book, Stillwater: A Photographic History; Patricia Condon Johnston, Stillwater: Minnesota’s Birthplace; Anita Albrecht Buck, Steamboats on the St. Croix; James Taylor Dunn, The St. Croix: Midwest Border River; Chip Kraft, and Nate McGinn. My heartfelt gratitude to long-ago resident and photographer, John Runk, who left a magnificent legacy for all of us.
Thanks also to my new friend, Kyle Raph; Helmar Heckel for the right word at the right time; Joe Hansen, gifted Northern Kentucky University Elderhostel leader; James Glover and Walter Johnson for their great help with horses and wagons; longtime dog-lovers Tom Robinson, president of the Minnesota Valley Kennel Club, and Norma Robinson, president of the Newfoundland Dog Club of the Greater Twin Cities, Eagan, Minnesota.
In Burlington, Iowa, thanks to Susie Guest, library assistant, Burlington Free Public Library; Anna Martin, historian, and the historical board of the First Congregational Church; and the Burlington Hawk Eye. My gratitude to Gayla Young, Denmark, Iowa; Gerald Thele, Weaver, Iowa; Hazelle and Clay Lanman for their tour of the Pearson House, Keosauqua, Iowa; and the Des Moines Register.
Again I am indebted to Robert L. Miller, curator of a national historic landmark, the steamer George M. Verity, Keokuk River Museum, Keokuk, Iowa. In addition to the museum resources, Bob has shared of his own personal knowledge and read portions of the manuscript. For this novel, thanks, also, to Bob’s wi
fe, Margaret Miller, and their son, John Miller.
The village called Cahoka in this novel is now spelled Kahoka. Thanks to the Clark County Historical Society, their Kahoka Museum, and to society president, Raymond Morrow; to the editors of the incredible special edition for Clark County’s Old Settlers 100th Celebration; Linda Brown-Kubisch, reference librarian, State Historical Society of Missouri at Columbia; the Hannibal Public Library; and the Hannibal Tri-Weekly Messenger.
Roberta and Hurley Hagood, Hannibal historians and authors of such wonderful books as The Story of Hannibal, Hannibal, Too, and Hannibal Yesterdays, once again shared freely of their research and time. In addition to providing background information they answered countless questions and read a portion of the manuscript.
Thanks to you, Paul and Lucille Herron, for sharing your wonderful, pre–Civil War farm home with us. Your inspiration helped the story of Jordan’s family and the Weaver family come alive.
My deep gratitude to my editors for the first edition of this book—Rochelle Gloege, Natasha Sperling, and Janna Anderson—and the entire Bethany House team.
Thank you to each person at Moody Publishers who had a part in bringing out this new edition of the Freedom Seekers series: Deborah Keiser, Associate Publisher—River North, for her strong gifting, creative planning, and visionary leadership; Michele Forrider, Audience Development Manager, for day-to-day marketing and making connections with you, my audience; Brittany Biggs, my big-time help in Author Relations; Bailey Utecht, capable Editorial Assistant; and Pam Pugh, General Project Editor, for her oversight, management, and working through the details that bring this novel to completion. My thanks, also, to Artist Odessa Sawyer for giving us exciting art that brings my characters alive.
Three special people have helped to shape my thinking for this book. My husband Roy has offered his wisdom and love for kids, as well as his daily encouragement. Our son Kevin has shared and lived that same love for young people. Ron Klug, my faithful, courageous, fire-eating editor, has waded through the early stages of this book, suggested scenes I would have forgotten, and made sure that all the things I wanted to tell you have come together in the story you read.
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