Unbound by Anne E. Burg

When nine-year-old Grace learns she is being sent to work in Master Allen's "Big House", she is unhappy. It will mean leaving behind Mama, her two younger brothers Thomas and Willy, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jim and his night stories and singing. Grace has light blue eyes and pale skin, different from her mama's brown eyes and dark skin.  But Grace has no choice. Her mama makes her promise 

"to always be good,
to listen to the Missus,
never talk back,
to lower my eyes...
to not speak
less spoken to first."

Her Aunt Sara tells Grace that her time in the Master's house will not be easy. She warns her that "the Missus is hateful as a toad" and that she needs to keep the promises made to her mama.

Her mama tells Uncle Jim, it's the pale skin that has led to Grace being called to the Big House. This  leads Grace to run into the swamp to visit OleGeorgeCooper, a runaway slave who is hiding "in the swamp with gators, snakes, n soul-stealing witches." OleGeorgeCooper has whip scars running across his face. Graces smears mud all over her face, arms and legs to make her skin brown, but when her mother sees her like this she chides Grace for not accepting the skin colour God gave her.

At the Big House, Grace is put to work in the kitchen with Aunt Tempie. There are three other slaves in the house: Uncle Moses, who helps Master Allen dress, drives his wagon and tends the horses, Jordan who waits on the Allens during dinner, and Anna who help Missus Allen dress and washes the clothes. Aunt Tempie warns Grace to avoid the Missus because she is "mean as a hornet...". Grace learns how to grind corn into flour, how to split a chicken and remove the bones. She learns that Jordan has runaway before and that he has a wife and a baby girl. 

As time passes, Grace longs to see her mother. She also sees how badly Anna, who does everything for the Missus, is treated. And she herself soon becomes the target of the Missus when she lets slip a few words, breaking her promise to her mother. But when Jordan runs just before the tobacco harvest, the Missus makes the suggestion that they sell Grace's family to make enough money to hire a new slave. 

Faced with being separated forever, Grace and her family decide to become runaways and flee into the Swamp. The dangers of the swamp are worth the risk of fleeing and being free.

Discussion

Unbound tells the story of a young girl and her family who work as slaves on a tobacco plantation in the southern United States. The story, told in free verse, provides young readers with what seems like a realistic portrayal of what the life of a nine-year-old child slave living on a plantation in Virginia/North Carolina would have been like. Burg does refer to some of the horrors slaves encountered, such as whippings, cruel treatment by their owners and the auctioning of slaves which often broke apart families forever. There is OleGeorgeCooper with the "ripples" across his face, Anna who gets whipped for "lingering", and Jordan who never smiles because he is not able to live with his wife and daughter. However, for the most part, the novel doesn't go into graphic detail.

Grace, who has blue eyes and light skin, is likely the daughter of Master Allen, who also has blue eyes and who views Grace as property, referring to her as "an investment". Grace isn't aware of this, as she believes she doesn't have a daddy, but her parentage is likely one of the reasons the Missus treats Grace cruelly and to break her spirit, suggests they sell Grace's family at an auction. 

Grace is a brave, strong young girl who finds she can't keep silent in the face of such oppression. When she learns about the duties the other slaves in the house have, such as serving dinner, helping Master Allen and Missus dress, Grace can't understand why the white folks are so helpless. When she learns that Master Allen intends to sell her mother and half-brothers in order to be able to afford to replace runaway slave Jordon, Grace makes the decision to run away, taking her family with her. 

Grace feels intense guilt because she broke her mother's promise to not talk back. She feels responsible for Master Allen's decision to sell her family. The Missus Allen made the suggestion as a way to "finally teach Grace who she is and where she belongs." Throughout her journey to the swamp, Grace must confront her inner turmoil. Eventually she confesses to her mother that they had to flee because she didn't keep her promises, keep her eyes down, keep her mouth shut. But her mother tells Grace that "Some folks done need a reason to hate...Hatin's a choice what's got nothin to do with you." Grace is not responsible for the evil others do. Her mother's love and forgiveness help heal Grace of her shame. 

Grace also learns that Aunt Tempie, whom she believed simply did whatever the Allens wanted,  has been intimately involved in helping runaway slaves for years. With shame, Grace realizes that she has judged Aunt Tempie the same way Missus Allen judged her.

Burg set her story in the early 1860's and Grace's fictional story is based on the real experiences of  slaves who fled to the Great Dismal Swamp to be free. The Great Dismal Swamp covered parts of southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina and was surrounded by plantations worked by slaves. Slaves like Grace and her family, who freed themselves came to be known as maroons. Life in the swamp was dangerous and hard, but the maroons were willing to endure it because they were free. The fact that slaves were willing to live in such difficult conditions, often moving deep within the swamp to avoid recapture, is a testament to the human desire to be free. In the Great Dismal Swamp, Grace finds the freedom her heart longs for.

Freedom's not jus a place
you find on a map.
Freedom's livin
with folks who love you
n havin the space
to love yourself.

Freedom's not bein afraid
To say your own thoughts
n follow your own heart,
just like the good Lord intended.

Unbound offers young readers the opportunity to learn more about slavery in America and to explore what the life of a slave was like in the early 1860's. The story told simply in free verse, sticks to the important elements of the storyline, making this a good book for middle grade readers.

Book Details:

Unbound by Anne E. Burg
New York: Scholastic Press   2016
344 pp.

Loving vs Virginia by Patricia Hruby Powell

Loving vs. Virginia is touted as a "documentary novel" about the famous civil rights case which struck down laws prohibiting interracial marriage in the United States. Mildred Jeter, a young black woman of mixed ethnicity, married Richard Loving in Washington, D.C. in 1958. The returned to their home in Virginia and were arrested five weeks later. In 1967, their case went to the United States Supreme Court. The court's decision, issued on June 12, 1967, overturned their conviction of violating Virginia's laws on miscegenation. At the time of the ruling in 1967, all sixteen southern states had laws forbidding interracial marriage.

Patricia Mruby Powell's novel in verse tells Mildred and Richard's story while also presenting "bites" of background historical information in the form of pictures, quotes and brief articles. The story is told in the alternating narratives of Mildred and Richard.

The story opens in the fall of 1952 in Central Point, Caroline county, Virginia where Mildred Jeter lives with her mother, stepfather, her older sister Garnet and seven brothers.  Mildred attends Sycamore School, her brother Lewis is in grade 1, Garnet is in grade 7, and Mildred is in grade 6. It is a one room school with all the grades sharing. The Jeter ancestors have lives in Central Point for centuries; her parents are part Indian as well as descended  from African slaves and their owners. In the spring Mildred's family plants a garden of corn, string beans and greens, they have their own cow for milk and make their own butter, and slaughter their own hogs and chickens. On the weekends, folks come to the Jeter household: Mildred's big brother's Theo, Edward, Richard, George and James, Otha and their friends come. They play softball in the field. When darkness falls, Mildred's father brings out his banjo, and her brothers play guitar, fiddles and mandolins. Soon everyone is laughing and dancing as one of the fathers calls a square dance.

"If I stop and watch
I see young and old --
Indians, Negroes, Whites --
all mixed together.

Everyone likes each other
in our neighborhood.
Everyone dancing
TOGETHER."

During the fall of 1952, while driving home in his friend Ray's car, Ray and Richard are stopped by Sheriff R. G. Brooks. Sheriff Brooks hates "colored people" and he questions Ray calling him "boy" but Richard who is white is called "son". Brooks doesn't much like Richard either partly because he hangs around the coloreds and also because his father drives a truck for P.E. Boyd Byrd, a colored farmer known to be very good-natured.

In October 1955, Mildred is a freshman at Union High School. She loves school and plans to graduate, unlike her older brothers, Otha and Theo who have dropped out of school to work. At a dance at their neighbor's, the Fortunes, Mildred and Otha dance up a storm. Richard Loving notices Mildred and insists on driving her and her family home. That night Garnet suggests to Millie that Richard likes her. Her observation is proven when Richard takes everyone to the drive-in a few nights later. He tells Mildred that he offered to take everyone because he knew she might turn him down. They have their first kiss.

In the fall of October 1955, Richard and Millie's relationship continues to grow. In the spring of 1956 Millie is back at school. Richard comes regularly to see her. People don't like that Richard is with Millie and sometimes they hear comments, but Richard tells her that it would be worse if he was black and she was white. He would be lynched. In September 1958, Millie realizes she pregnant and she's terrified she will lose Richard. She tells him one night after she is refused entrance into a square dance Millie's father and brother's band are performing at. The dance is at Sparta school, the white elementary school Richard once attended. Richard is upset and drives her home. In January of 1957, with Richard's mother Lola Loving attending her, Millie gives birth to a beautiful little boy she names Sidney. In February 1957, Richard visits Millie, apologizing for abandoning her and asks her to take him back. He meets his little son.

In May of 1957 Sheriff Brooks harasses Richard and Millie, pulling them over when they are out driving. He warns Richard not to break the law and to "take that little Negress home where she belongs." Richard meets Millie's family in June of 1957. In April 1958 Millie finds herself pregnant once again. At first Richard seems upset but when Millie presses him, he tells her they need to find out her due date so they can make plans to marry. This makes Millie very happy because she knows Richard will stay.

Richard's decision to marry Millie doesn't sit well with his best friend Ray who encourages Richard to do what others have done and simply live next door to her. But Richard believes that Millie deserves better. Ray challenges Richard telling him he can't marry Millie because it's illegal and that the sheriff will never let it go.  Meanwhile Millie who is now five months pregnant, her baby due in October, quits school.

Richard and Millie along with family drive to Washington, D.C., first doing the paperwork at City Hall. They go to the preacher's house and are married. Richard knows Millie doesn't know they are breaking the law by getting married. He hopes that once they return home to Virginia they'll be forgotten. But on July 11, 1958, Richard and Millie go to bed on a hot, sticky Virginia summer night only to be awakened by Sheriff Brooks shining a light in their faces. Richard tells the sheriff they are married and points to the marriage certificate on the bedroom wall. The sheriff tells them not in Virginia and both Richard and Millie are taken to jail.

Richard is put in a cell with other men and the next morning is bailed out by his sister. He is told if he bails Millie out he will be re-arrested. Millie is in a cell upstairs. Alone for days and pregnant she worries she might have her baby in the rat infested jail. She is visited by her mother who tells her that her brothers and father can't come because they believe they will be arrested. On her seventh day in jail Millie is bailed out by her daddy who pays her $1000 bond. Millie goes to live at her parents home, while Richard stays at his parent's home. She learns that she and Richard can't be married because race mixing is forbidden and illegal. Richard visits Millie secretly and tells her he will come again. This reassures Millie that he won't abandon her. In October Millie gives birth to a baby boy whom Richard names Donald. After her hearing Millie, Richard and their two children Sidney and Donald move to Washington, D.C. to live with Millie's cousin Alex.

In January, 1959 Mildred and Richard return to Virginia for their hearing at the Bowling Green Courthouse. On the advice of their lawyer, Mr. Beazley, they plead guilty and Judge Bazile sentences them to one year in jail or a suspended sentence for twenty-five years if they leave Caroline County and the state of Virginia immediately and do not return together for those twenty-five years. Upset, Millie asks Beazley if they can return in twenty-five years and he tells them likely not as they could be sentenced to another twenty-five years. He suggests they go visit their families but do not stay together overnight. However, when they try to return for Easter 1959, Richard staying at his parents and Millie along with the children at her parents, Sheriff Brooks forces them to come to the jail. Their lawyer talks to Judge Bazile and they are released but they must leave immediately.

Mildred and Richard spend the next years living in Washington, D.C. with Alex. Richard works in Caroline County. Millie delivers their third child, Peggy at her mother's home with the help of Lola Loving. In the summer of 1963, Millie, fed up with living in the city, missing her family and watching her husband have to commute daily, decides to act. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, she decides to write Attorney General, Bobby Kennedy. He tells her to contact the ACLU in Washington. Mildred and Richard meet with an ACLU lawyer, Mr. Cohen and set in motion a course of action that ultimately changes their lives forever.

Discussion

Patricia Hruby Powell and illustrator Shadra Strickland have crafted a remarkable book that informs readers about the journey of Mildred Jeter Loving and Richard Loving to live their lives as they chose to - as husband and wife. Using interviews, print resources and speaking with friends and family of Richard and Mildred (both of whom have now passed away), Powell presents in historical context, the backstory behind the landmark Loving vs. Virginia case. Richard and Mildred narrate events in first person that occurred through the 1950's and 1960's leading up to the landmark case. Powell uses pages, separate from Richard and Mildred's story, to outline the struggle of African Americans to achieve equal rights.

The novel opens with a timeline beginning with Emancipation in 1865 (slaves are freed) to 1952 when Mildred and Richard's story begins. There is also a reproduction of the 1924 New Virginia Law to Preserve Racial Integrity. The 1950's decade during which Mildred and Richard were growing up was a period where the integration of schools in the United States was intensely opposed. Unbelievably, the state of Virginia chose to close schools rather than integrate black students into white schools. As the civil rights movement picks up steam in the early 1960's Powell has included photographs of sit-ins in white-only restaurants, explanations of the Freedom Riders of 1961 (students who rode public buses in mixed-race groups to protest continued segregation), and quotes and photographs from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches, letters and The March on Washington in 1963.

Mildred Jeter Loving and her husband Richard P. Loving
January 26, 1965

The time was ripe for defeating laws banning interracial marriages in the 1960's. The civil rights movement began building momentum during that decade aided by the determined and charismatic Martin Luther King Jr. When Mildred contacted the ACLU in Washington, she and Richard were contacted by two young, intelligent and inexperienced lawyers determined to win them the right to be married.  Loving vs. Virginia includes a photograph of Mildred and Richard with Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop. Separate pages outline how Cohen and Hirschkop prepared each step of their case that ultimately led them to challenge the Loving's conviction under Virginia's racial purity law in the nation's Supreme Court.

The views of elected officials, most notably Governor George Wallace are presented. Some are quite remarkable to read.When Judge Bazile issued his ruling in the Loving case in January of 1965 he wrote, " Almighty God created the races, white, black, yellow, malay, and red and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

Shadra Strickland illustrated the Loving's story using "a style of illustrative reporting from the Loving's time called visual journalism...Visual journalism was often characterized by a loose, impromptu drawing style that allowed lines to overlap and preserved the informal feeling of sketches in the final composition." Strickland used photographs of the Lovings from Life Magazine as well as from her own mother's childhood in the 1950's to create the illustrations in the novel.

Powell's narratives are believable, capturing the characters of Richard and Mildred. They are portrayed as simple, everyday folk who want to live their lives as they wish. Mildred's fears of being abandoned by Richard and Richard's determination to protect Millie and his love for her are well captured.  As Richard states in one of his narratives, "We just want to live as husband and wife in Virginia." After winning their case, Richard and Mildred were reluctant to attend a press conference, but were persuaded by their lawyers because of the importance of their case.

Despite their win change would continue to come slowly. In 1967 when the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the Loving vs. Virginia case, there were sixteen states which still had anti-miscegenation laws on the books. The last law against inter-racial marriages was finally struck off in 2000 in the state of Alabama.

Image credits:

1959 protest image: https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/loving-vs-virginia-an-interview-with-patricia-hruby-powell/

Mildred and Richard Loving image: https://www.britannica.com/event/Loving-v-Virginia

Shadra Strickland illustration: https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/loving-vs-virginia-an-interview-with-patricia-hruby-powell/

Book Details:

Loving vs. Virginia by Patricia Hruby Powell
San Francisco: Chronicle Books 2017
260 pp.

The Gospel Truth by Caroline Pignat

Phoebe is a slave on Arnold Duncan's Whitehaven Plantation located in Virginia in 1858. When Phoebe was only six years old,  her mother was sold off to another owner and from that time she's never spoken. Now sixteen years old, Phoebe looks after Tessa Duncan, the daughter of the plantation owner, brushing her hair and laying out her clothes.

The story begins with Will, one of the slaves owned by Duncan, being brought back by the overseer Brutus after attempting to escape. Brutus is ordered to "peel and pickle" him, meaning that Will is to be whipped until there is no skin remaining and then salt water poured on the wounds causing extreme pain. Duncan believes that Will, who is a very large man, is a valuable slave and he's determined to "break" him and then breed him. Duncan also owns Will's younger brother Shadrach.

Over the past year Miss Tessa has been tutored by Mr. Cooke to learn to read. Unknown to anyone else, Phoebe has learned to read while fanning Miss Tessa and Cooke as they study. Since it is against the law for a slave to learn to read and write, Phoebe keeps this a secret. She hopes one day to check the master's red book to learn where her mother has been sent.

One day Shad announces to Beatrice who is the cook and to Phoebe that a doctor is coming to the plantation the following week to study Virginian birds. The arrival of Doctor Ross Bergman, an ornithologist from Canada peeks everyone's interest including Phoebe. Arnold Duncan whose great-great-grandfather came from Scotland, is the first Duncan in five generations to have no son to pass on the plantation. His land is almost spent and he needs fresh land to grow tobacco. To buy land, Arnold Duncan hopes to attract Bergman's money.  Duncan is also keenly aware that times are changing with the North turning on the South and the slaves against their masters. The days of a plantation run on the backs of black slaves may be nearing its end.

Phoebe finds Dr. Bergman most interested in her, but even more so when Miss Tessa informs him that Phoebe seems to "have a way with birds". Master Duncan orders Phoebe to accompany Dr. Bergman to the woods to show him where the cedar waxwings nest. Missus Duncan is not happy about this. The next morning Miss Tessa accompanies Dr. Bergman and Phoebe into the woods. Both Shad and Bea worry about Phoebe going into the woods with the white doctor.  Miss Tessa's constant talking means they find no birds. For Tessa the walk and the heat are tiresome and she's not interested in birds but in attracting Dr. Bergman as a potential husband.

At dinner that night, Master Duncan is angry about a suspected abolitionist who has been showing up at the plantations and helping slaves to escape up north. On another outing to find birds, Bergman draws bird nests and is introduced to a more detailed tour of life on the plantation by Miss Tessa, one that sees him witness a black slave being beaten. He keeps his feelings carefully hidden although he does tell Miss Tessa that her use of the Bible as a justification for keeping slaves is not correct.

Dr. Bergman simply bides his time hoping to get Phoebe alone. His chance comes the very next day when Miss Tessa is made to remain at the house for a lesson with Mr. Cooke. Phoebe takes "Dr. Birdman" as she calls him, out into the woods for more birding. Wary of his intentions, she waits until he takes a nap to go to her "hidey-hole" in the tree where she has hidden her journal. Bergman follows her there and watches Phoebe as she sits quietly with an little bird in her hands. When she returns Bergman tells Phoebe he needs her to help him and to keep a secret. He wants her to bring him a slave who has tried to escape to her hollow tree. Phoebe agrees to do this.

Shad, suspicious of Dr. Bergman's intentions, follows Phoebe and the doctor into the woods. Although nothing happens to Phoebe, Shad remains watchful. The next day Master Duncan releases Will from the shed because he needs his tobacco harvested quickly. Phoebe delivers Bergman's message to Will and they meet him at the hollow tree where the doctor tells Will to bring men he trusts to the tree the following night.  The next night Will brings Levi, Joe and Davey to meet Dr. Bergman. Unknown to them Phoebe is hiding within the tree and hears their plans.  Bergman tells the slaves that not all white men are like Master Duncan, that he is there to help them escape and that many hundreds of slaves have escaped to the north and to freedom. Only they can choose to take the risk and Bergman requests that if they choose not to, that they tell no one. He asks them to meet him at Carson's Corner in ten days. Can Will and his friends and Phoebe trust that the white man is telling the truth? Will they have the courage to grasp this chance at freedom? And will Shad discover the truth of slavery before it's too late?

Discussion

The Gospel of Truth is told in free verse by six narrators: the slaves Phoebe, Shad and Will as well as Master Duncan and his daughter Tessa Duncan and the abolitionist, Dr. Bergman. The novel is set in 1858, only two years before the election of Abraham Lincoln and three years before the start of the American Civil War. In 1858 America, slavery was ubiquitous in the south where plantation owners used black slaves to work crops of hemp, tobacco and cotton. Slavery had been essentially abolished in the northern states by 1804, but with many plantations in the south switching over to growing cotton, the use of slave labour was firmly entrenched. There were millions of black slaves living in the southern United States by 1858. 

However, the movement to abolish slavery altogether began to grow rapidly after 1830. At this time free blacks and white abolitionists began actively helping slaves to escape to the northern states or into Canada. The route of safe houses and those willing to help became known as the Underground Railroad.  At this time the southern states were beginning to face an economic crisis as the land began to fail. Those living in the southern United States saw the northern state's abolitionist views as an attack on their way of life. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, seven southern states left the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. This secession eventually led to the beginning of the Civil War and ultimately to the war becoming about the issue of slavery.

The use of verse to tell the story of courageous men and women who risked everything to escape slavery is an effective means of storytelling because it pares the narrative down to its essentials and focuses on the humanity of the slaves. Pignat does touch on many of the realities of institutionalized slavery: the brutal beatings, whippings and torture undertaken to "break" slaves, the selling of mothers away from their children and children from their mothers, the rape of slave girls by their masters and the use of slave women as concubines.  In The Gospel Truth, Phoebe, Will and the other slaves must overcome their conditioning by their white master to accept their fate and their fear of the white man to realize the truth written in their hearts that she belongs to no one and that "owning people is wrong."  The white plantation owners deliberately keep their black slaves ignorant, unable to read or write, meaning they were completely dependent upon their owners. Phoebe secretly learns to read in the hopes that she can learn what happened to her mother.

Pignat also demonstrates that the racist view of the slaves was part of white family life and passed from generation to generation of Americans. For  example, when Miss Tessa is out birding with Dr. Bergman  they witness the brutal beating of a girl whose fallen behind the line. Tessa tells Dr. Bergman,
"We buy, breed, feed, clothe, house, and train them,"
Miss Tess parrots.
"And if need be, we sell them.
But we take good care of our property."

"Your people," he say.

"Oh, Doctor," she roll her eyes,
and say what master always say,
"they're not people...

they're Negroes."

She attempts to explain that her belief is supported by the Bible to which Dr. Bergman suggests that "...some people misinterpret even God's truth." What Tess considers is "gospel truth" from the Bible is not so.

Readers also see the effect of slavery on families and marriages. The use of slaves as concubines undermined many marriages. Master Duncan's rape of Ruthie, Phoebe's mother and the birth of Phoebe destroy the Duncan's marriage as Missus Duncan refuses her husband afterwards. This results in Arnold Duncan having no male heir for his plantation.

The theme of truth is woven throughout the novel. When Phoebe is taunted by Ella Mae, Bea tells Phoebe that the reason Ella Mae hates her is because Phoebe's father is a white man, Master Duncan.  She tells Phoebe that "I've been protecting you for ten years no. But I see I can't protect you from everything...'Specially not the truth." Bea tells Phoebe it's time she knows the truth.

Later on Shadrach finds the bag containing the items Dr. Bergman gave Will for his escape as well as Phoebe's journal in the hollow tree. Shad tells Phoebe that he thinks Will is going to try to escape again but that he has prevented this by taking the bag and he has given her journal to Master Duncan so he can find out "who been leading my brother astray."  This terrifies Phoebe who tells herself that she cannot run from the truth, she can't hide the truth that she knows how to read and write. Shad is horrified when he learns the truth about the journal - that it belongs to Phoebe who knows how to read and write. As Shad struggles to uncover the truth of what is going on, he is forced to choose between Phoebe who wants to run to freedom and Master Duncan who promises to make him overseer. Phoebe finds her voice to tell Shad the truth of why she's running:
"I ain't Master's shame," she say,
eyes puddled up with tears.
"I ain't Tessa's toy,
or even your girl, Shad."
She shrug.
"I's Phoebe. Just Phoebe. I belong to no one."

She tells Shad,
"--owning people is wrong.
shameful wrong, Shad.
And that's the gospel truth."

In the end Phoebe states that
"It takes courage
                to see truths
                that we'd rather not."

There is plenty of symbolism to explore in this novel particularly around the yellow bird that Phoebe finds injured at the beginning of the novel. She takes the bird, which has a broken wing, home and places it in a cage. Phoebe believes that
"sometimes the safest place to be is 
in a cage."
This is a truth for Phoebe. However as time passes, the bird languishes, refusing to eat or sing. Phoebe returns to where she found the yellow bird and watches the same birds who are free, discovering that they eat worms and bugs. When she brings home a worm, the yellow bird responds and finally moves in the cage. Phoebe comes to understand that although the yellow bird's wing has mended its heart is broken. 

Miss Tessa wonders why the yellow bird won't sing and makes the connection that like Phoebe, it is mute. However she fails to understand why this might be. When Phoebe plans to run and take Will's bag containing the items he will need to escape to him at Carter's Corner, she remembers to free the yellow bird. She recognizes that although the bird is safe in the cage, it is not living the life it was meant to.
"Sure, I keep her alive,
but I's keeping her
from living like a yellow bird should."

Phoebe also understands how being caged has affected the yellow bird.
"Miss Tessa said the bird is tame.
Tame is just another word for broke.
Her wing is long healed.
But numbed by what life she knows behind these bars,
Yellowbird stopped hoping for one beyond them.
Truth is,
that cage is hurting her in ways I can't fix.
I keep her alive,
but she's living half-dead.

So Phoebe does what she has to - "I throw her at the dark and all its dangers."  She sets the yellow bird free and when free, the bird sings "like a yellow bird should."

The yellow bird represents Phoebe who as a slave, is living in a cage called Whitehaven, unable to leave and unable to live her life as she is meant to. Like the yellow bird, she and Will and the others must flee into the "dark and all its dangers" to escape their cage of slavery. And Phoebe herself, once she makes the choice to escape, finds her voice to tell Shad why it is that she must go. On the verge of freedom she speaks, just as the yellow bird once free, begins to sing again.

The Gospel Truth is a wonderfully crafted novel with a remarkable heroine as its focus. Winner of the 2015 Governor General Award, The Gospel Truth represents historical fiction at its best, capturing the era in a realistic manner with believable characters. Caroline Pignat is a Canadian author whose novel Greener Grass won the 2009 Governor General Award. Pignat is an English teacher in Ottawa.

Book Details:

The Gospel Truth by Caroline Pignat
Brighton, Massachusetts: Red Deer Press    2014
327 pp.

Blue Birds by Caroline Starr Rose

Blue Birds is a historical novel-in-verse that tells the story of the English who come to settle on Roanoke Island in Virginia in the 1500's. Written for nine to twelve year olds, the story is told from alternate points of view: twelve year old English settler Alis and thirteen year old Roanoke native, Kimi.

The novel begins in July 1587 with Alis, her family part of a group of 117 English settlers having arrived off the coast of North America after a three month journey. She's left behind her best friend, Joan, and the suffocating smells of rot and filth of London. The pilot of their ship, Simon Ferdinando has taken them to the island of Roanoke, miles from where they were supposed to land. Governor John White has done nothing about it, angering many of the settlers. As Alis, her heavily pregnant mother and her father board the pinnace to travel from the ship to shore, she holds the wooden blue bird her Uncle Samuel carved and gave her years before. Alis expects her uncle to be on shore to greet them.

The English settlers are accompanied to the land which they have named Virginia in honour of the English Queen Elizabeth, by Manteo, a member of the Croatoan tribe. No one greets them, not even Alis's Uncle Samuel. After George Howe Sr. and Roger Bailie investigate, the Governor reveals that the settlement has been abandoned for some time and that they have found a building burned to the ground and the bones of a man. He decides that they will stay at the settlement through the fall and winter and in the spring sail to Chesapeake to establish the City of Raleigh. Arlis's uncle is no where to be found and eventually her father tells her that it's likely he has been killed by the Indians.

The arrival of the English is watched by Kimi a young girl belonging to the Roanoke tribe. She remembers the first white people who came, men only bearing gifts and tools and who took Wanchese and Manteo back to their country. The second group brought illness and drought, beheading Kimi's father, Wingina who was the weroance or leader of the Roanoke. The third group was killed by Wanchese. Kimi is surprised to see women and children with the English men. She quickly notices a girl her own age. Kimi tells Wanchese about the women and children but he tells her it is not her concern. Kimi reveals that she misses her sister Alawa intensely. She knows the presence of women mean the English mean to stay and that they must force them to leave "before their roots take hold."

The English set about restoring the settlement which contains a few cottages, animal pens, a barracks which were used by the English soldiers, a jail, a chapel, an armory and a forge surrounded by four earthen walls.  The few women, Mrs. Archard and Mrs. Dare, who is the daughter of Governor White and who is also pregnant, want the Governor to sail to Chesapeake.

One day Kimi comes upon Alis who has stolen away from the settlement, in the forest. Seeing Kimi and the spiral markings on her bare arms, Alis flees in fear, dropping the bird carving of her Uncle Samuel which Kimi finds and considers to be Alis's montoac. George Dare, son of George Dare Sr. tells Alis he has seen the girl in the forest but Alis refuses to admit seeing her. Alis and Kimi meet again in the forest and this time they study each other before Kimi speaks angrily to Alis in a language she cannot understand. This causes Alis to run away a second time.

In the settlement Alis is assigned to care for Tommy and Ambrose, Mrs. Archard's children. Alis cannot trust anyone with her secret - meeting the girl in the forest. Meanwhile Kimi decides to bury Alis's montoac but later finds she needs to dig it up. After five days Alis manages to return to the forest and meet Kimi. Just as their friendship begins to grow, Mr. Howe is killed by the Roanoke Indians while digging clams on the shore. Can Alis and Kimi overcome the hatred and fear their people have for one another and develop the bonds of friendship?

Discussion

Caroline Starr Rose has written a beautiful, touching story based on the tragedy that is known to history as the Lost Colony. The story centers around the disastrous attempts by the English to establish a colony on the east coast of America in the late 1500's. The land the English named Virginia was inhabited by Native Americans who at first found the English friendly. However, the cultural differences between the two races proved to be almost impossible to surmount. Murders by both sides created mistrust and hatred. Into this world stepped one hundred and seventeen colonists in 1587. The author, using the known details of this historical event, has created a poignant story about two girls from two very different cultures meeting and forming a bond of friendship so strong that they both try to save the other from what appears to be the inevitable war between their peoples.

Starr Rose noted in her research that there were no girls listed in the names of the passengers from the 1587 voyage, so she decided to write about one girl who might have made the journey. That character, Alis Harvie is completely fictional as is the character of Kimi. Using these two characters, the author explores the events that are known from Governor John White who returned to England with Ferdinando and creates a plausible account of what the colonist's may have done after his departure.

Alis and Kimi are caught in the war between their two peoples. Both girls are deeply lonely and have lost someone dear to them. Alis's beloved Uncle Samuel was likely killed by the Croatoans while Kimi's much loved older sister Alawa was killed by an English soldier. Each has a gift from their lost beloved relative; Alis a carved blue bird and Kimi a piece of ribbon her sister was given by the English.

The author's free verse focuses on showing how each race, the Roanoke and the English misunderstand one another, leading to a bitter cycle of mistrust and murder. Eventually the two races can no longer coexist and the English must leave.

At first Kimi feels that she has been tainted by Alis's presence.
I walk to the stream,
stoop to cleanse my feet,
wash off her strangeness
as an outsider does
before entering the village.

And she wonders why she feels like the stranger in her own land. But when they meet a third time Kimi feels Alis is daring and Alis believes Kimi to be beautiful. Alis admits "Something fascinating, fragile grows between us." They touch and Kimi realizes that Alis feels like any person would.
The two girls eventually talk in their own way about what happened before Alis and her family came to Kimi's land. Alis realizes,
The English,
my countrymen,
have brought upon the Roanoke
the same fear and horror 
we feel for them.

And Kimi realizes,
The English 
have wronged us.
But there is suffering
we have also waged.

Kimi knows Alis warned the Roanoke of the impending attack by the settlers. She also recognizes that the attack by the English need not destroy her budding friendship with Alis.

While weeding she notes the bean and the corn grow together.
I pat the soil around the bean
trace its growth from roots
to spindly stalk interwoven with the corn

These two plants thrive together
make my people strong.
There is no reason to let my anger
uproot something good.

This beautifully crafted novel is about friendship and openness to learn about those whose way of life may be very different. The author doesn't take sides and shows how both sides contributed to a situation that made life full of fear and intolerance.

Caroline Starr Rose has included a map of Roanoke Island 1587 and provides a Glossary of the now extinct dialect of the Croatoan and Roanoke peoples as well as a detailed Author's Note explaining the history of the attempted settlement of Roanoke Island by the English.

Book Details:

Blue Birds by Caroline Starr Rose
New York: G.P. Putnam's Son's   2015
393 pp. 

The Spymistress by Jennifer Chiaverini

It is April 1861, and the city of Richmond is in turmoil as a secession convention is being held to determine whether Virginia will follow the southern cotton states and secede from the Union. Forty-three-year-old Elizabeth (Lizzie) Van Lew lives with her mother, her brother John and his wife Mary and their two children Eliza and Anne, in the family's mansion in Richmond, Virginia's fashionable Church Hill neighbourhood. Lizzie has remained unmarried since the death twenty years earlier of her dearest friend and her fiance. Now she and her family watch with trepidation as more and more it appears the people of Richmond are siding with the Confederacy and into full rebellion against the United States.

While the people of Virginia and their representatives debate joining the southern states, the Van Lew family prepares for the wedding of their black servant, Mary Jane to Wilson Brewser.  The wedding serves to highlight the sympathies of each member of the Van Lew household. Lizzie's brother John gives away the bride and a reception is held at the Van Lew mansion but his wife, Mary doesn't attend either. The Van Lew's like many wealthy families in the south, own slaves but this is very much against Lizzie and her mother's wishes.  Before the death of Lizzie and John's father, a codicil was added to his will to prevent Lizzie and her mother from freeing their slaves.

When Virginia decides to secede, Lizzie, John and their mother are distraught. They know this will mean war and that many people will suffer and die. Lizzie suspects it will bring ruin to the south but even worse it will pit families against one another. But Mary is elated and speaks ill of Abraham Lincoln.

In April and May of 1861, the Confederate Congress decides to accept Virginia's offer to make Richmond the capital of the Confederate states. May sees the arrival of Jefferson Davies, (who will become President) and his wife Varina in Richmond; they take up residence in Spotswood while their official residence in the new capital is prepared for them. July sees the first significant land battle of the Civil War - the Union troops led by major general Benjamin F. Butler attack an outpost at Bethel Church in Hampton. Fighting continues around Richmond, at Manassas, as the Union troops attempt to move deeper into Virginia.

Lizzie and her mother anxiously wait throughout the day hoping for a Union victory but learn early the next morning from John, that the Confederates have won this battle - the Battle of Manassas, at a terrible cost to both sides. A thousand Union prisoners are marched into Liggon's Tobacco Factory as all the city jails are now filled. The factory has no beds, kitchens or sanitary facilities for the prisoners, many of whom are terribly wounded. When Lizzie learns of this she immediately sets out to the factory and manages to see Lieutenant Todd who is in charge. Todd refuses Lizzie's request to minister to the Union prisoners or to even briefly visit with the officers. So she takes matters into her own hands and pays a visit to Christopher G. Memminger, secretary of the treasury and also a staunch Christian. Managing to convince Memminger that it is the duty of a Christian to look after prisoners of war, even Yankee prisoners, he gives her a letter of introduction to General Winder who writes Lizzie a pass granting her permission to visit the prison and minister to the Union prisoners. Thus begins Lizzie's work in support of the Union cause.

The very next day Lizzie and her mother arrive at the prison, prepared with food and bandages. The conditions in the prison are more terrible than they imagined, many suffering from infected wounds and lack of water or food. They meet Congressman Ely who was captured as he watched the battle. Lizzie and Ely manage to work out a system whereby she lends him books and he places messages in a unique manner in the books. These messages list the names, ranks and regiments of all the prisoners as well as a letter to President Lincoln outlining conditions at the prison.

Lizzie's activities in support of the Union have not gone unnoticed. She is watched by a spy and an article is written about her and her mother in one of the city's papers, the Examiner. Lizzie's work at the prison also leads to an unexpected blow with John deciding to move his family out of the Van Lew mansion to the other side of the city. Lizzie and her mother are shocked but John insists that this is necessary considering his wife Mary's strong rebel views. He fears for the safety of Lizzie should Mary discover what she is up to.

As the war intensifies, the Confederate Congress attempts to thwart the actions of Union sympathizers within its own territory. The first of these measures is the passing of the Alien Enemies Act which requires "men over the ages of fourteen who were not citizens of the southern states to swear an oath of allegiance to the Confederate government". By the end of August 1861 the Sequestration Act is passed which allows the Confederate government to seize the property of Unionist-supporting civilians.  By September 1861 there are over fourteen hundred men who are suspected Union sympathizers under arrest. There is no doubt that Lizzie's views and actions will be considered hostile and treasonable.

Despite the increasing number of political prisoners in Richmond's jails, Lizzie continues to visit the prisons and to work on behalf of the Union cause. But she also knows that she must protect her mother and so she plans several actions that will throw into doubt her Unionist sympathies; her family hold a dinner and reception in honour of her cousin Jack's regiment, the Richmond Howitzers and they take in Captain Gibbs (who has replaced Todd) and his family for two months while they wait for a house to become available.

On February 22, 1862, Jefferson Davies is inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America. He orders Richmond and the surrounding area to be placed under martial law. Many more suspected Union loyalists are arrested and Lizzie waits in dread to be arrested. This doesn't happen but Lizzie now knows who her fellow loyalists are.

Eventually New Orleans is captured by the North, closing the Mississippi River to the South. In April 1862, John pays a rare visit to Lizzie and his mother and informs them that at one of the many functions he and Mary have attended at the Confederate Executive Mansion, he has learned that Union gunboats are heading up the James River to try to take Richmond. Mary and her mother are so certain that the North will succeed they prepare a room for General McClelland. But McClelland is not successful  and Lizzie and her mother are devastated.

During the battle, Lizzie and her friend Eliza ride out to visit a Union loyalist, Mr. Botts, who has been exiled to a farm nearby. Botts tells Lizzie that she must try to unify Richmond's loyalists so they can all work together to bring about the capture of Richmond and the defeat of the Confederates. He gives Lizzie the names of other loyalists and urges her to contact them but her also tells her that she must be willing to accept the great risk involved. By July 1862 Lizzie begins to set up her network of spies which include many ordinary citizens of Richmond. These people will work to gather intelligence and to get that information past the Confederacy pickets and behind Union lines. The novel follows Lizzie through many terrible events of the war; the Second Battle of Manassas, the brutal battle at Sharpsburg, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, the starvation endured by the people of Richmond as food becomes scarce, and the siege and capture of Richmond.  When Richmond finally is captured by the Union troops, Elizabeth Van Lew's contribution to the victory is immediately acknowledged.

Discussion

The Spymistress is a fictional account of the real life Civil War heroine, Elizabeth Van Lew. It is the second novel in Jennifer Chiaverini's historical fiction series about the Civil War. Chiaverini divides her novel into short periods of several months beginning from April 1861 to April 1865. The novel opens set against the drama of secession in Richmond, Virginia.

During the American Civil War women were often recruited as spies to provide intelligence on the opposing side. One such spy was Elizabeth Van Lew. Elizabeth was born on October 12, 1818 in Richmond, Virginia to John Van Lew who had a flourishing hardware business and who also owned several slaves. Elizabeth attended a Quaker school in Philadelphia and it's likely the school was influential in forming her anti-slavery views. Upon her father's death in 1843, Elizabeth and her mother were not able to free their slaves as John Van Lew's will directed they not be freed. Instead they did their best to help them.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Elizabeth was forty-three-years-old and living with her mother in their three-storey mansion in Virginia. They were part of the social elite in Virginian society but did not support either slavery or secession from the Union. Elizabeth and her mother began helping Union soldiers. She brought food, clothing and supplies to Union soldiers imprisoned in Libby Prison in Richmond. This prison was notorious for its harsh conditions. Elizabeth had initially been refused entry but managed to persuade General John H. Winder to allow her and her mother to bring food and medicine to the soldiers.

Elizabeth often helped prisoners escape, developing a plan, hiding them in her own home, or providing information on safe houses. She formed her own spy ring that was so successful in supplying the Union with intelligence that she was recruited by General Benjamin Butler to work for the Union. She used her own cipher to send information back to Butler about Richmond. Her spy network included her own black servant, Mary Elizabeth Bowser. Elizabeth's support and work for the Union cause led to her ostracization by Virginian society, costing her social standing and fortune. She was considered at traitor by her fellow Richmonders. Elizabeth Van Lew died in 1900, destitute and considered an outcast for her work to end slavery.

One of the difficulties in writing historical fiction is that there can be a great deal of focus on historical facts which can detract from the overall reading experience. Historical fiction must be more than just the presentation of facts; the challenge is to weave those facts into the story so that the reader absorbs them without really realizing it. Chiaverini mostly achieves this goal in her novel - many of the facts are central to the story of main character, Elizabeth Van Lew and how she acts. Richmond was a city central to the Union's goal of winning the war as it was the capital of the Confederacy. Lizzie's intelligence efforts helped to bring about the capture of Richmond and end the war and the carnage sooner rather than later. So she must be placed within the complex history of the Civil War. Chiaverini's attention to detail allowed readers who are not intimately familiar with American Civil War history to understand the context of Miss Van Lew's actions and to understand what she experienced.

The author realistically portrays life in Richmond during the war. After the Seven Days Battle the terrible state of Richmond is evident even on Church Hill, where the Van Lew mansion is situated. "In the heat of the day, a sickening, fetid odor permeated the city, so that even high atop Church Hill, the air was so foul that Lizzie and her mother could not sit on the piazza for long before choking, clutching handkerchiefs to their faces, and fleeing back inside."

The character of Elizabeth Van Lewis is developed gradually throughout the novel. At the opening of the war she is a forty-three year old spinster whose life revolves around her two little nieces, Anne and Eliza. It would seem after the death of her fiance years ago, life narrowed somewhat for Miss Van Lew. However, with the coming of the war Lizzie is revealed to be a shrewd, intelligent woman, who is not easily intimidated by others. She is so loyal to the Union and President Lincoln that she is willing to pay the ultimate price - sacrifice her life if necessary. She suffers deeply to see Confederate boys enlisting and reveling in the fact that there will be war. Elizabeth is horrified at the conditions in the Confederate prisons and baffled by the black men who enlist to fight the Union. Chiaverini portrays her as a noble woman who did what she had to, to help the war effort.

The novel is divided into time periods of several months, set in Richmond which became the official capital of the Confederacy. Readers will see how the society in the city gradually changed as the war intensified and how war affected even the most honourable of men such as Colonel Winder. Readers may find the middle of the novel to be somewhat slow, but overall this is a great read for those who enjoy novels about this period in American history.

Book Details:
The Spymistress by Jennifer Chiaverini
New York: Penguin Group           2013
355 pp.