From Slave Ship to Freedom Road

by Julius Lester, Julius Lester

Rod Brown and Julius Lester bring history to life in this profoundly moving exploration of the slave experience. From the Middle Passage to the auction block, from the whipping post to the fight for freedom, this book presents not just historical facts, but the raw emotions of the people who lived them. Inspired by Rod Brown's vivid paintings, Julius Lester has written a text that places each of us squarely inside the skin of both slave and slaveowner. It will capture the heart of every reader, black or white, young or old.

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
An NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
A Booklist Editors' Choice Book

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, History, African American, Childrens, Civil War, American Civil War

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Julius Lester was an American writer of books for children and adults. He was an academic who taught for 32 years (1971–2003) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was also a photographer, as well as a musician who recorded two albums of folk music and original songs.

Reviews

[CanadianReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a visually and emotionally provocative picture book for mature older children and young adults, Julius Lester provides text to go with twenty-two powerful, boldly coloured oil paintings by artist Rod Brown from his exhibit From Slavery to Freedom. Some of Brown’s images are of terrible things—bodies of Africans, who did not survive the Middle Passage, bobbing in the sea; the bleeding welts on a slave’s back; and the silhouette of a hanged slave—and the author uses some charged language to accompany these pictures. Lester pushes his readers with probing questions and mental exercises. He asks them to imagine themselves into the experiences of slaves: their transport from West Africa to the New World, their sale at auction, their work in plantation fields and houses, their attempts at running away, participation in the American Civil War, and finally their release from slavery by Lincoln’s 1862 Emancipation Proclamation or by the later arrival of Union soldiers.

Some of Lester’s questions are intended to encourage empathy: “How would I feel if that happened to me?” Some ask readers to look more closely at the paintings and to imagine what the painted figures are thinking or talking about. Still others challenge young people to confront “something more difficult”—for example, what it was like to be “not the victim, but the aggressor.” Lester observes: “We may think that we would never whip someone until their flesh cried blood. But what if you would not be punished for doing it? What if your peers approved and deemed you honorable and good for beating someone?” Regarding the principled white people who assisted fugitive slaves to the northern states or Canada, the author asks: “Would you risk going to jail to help someone you didn’t know? Would you risk losing your freedom to help someone not of your race?”

Thinking about this short, forty-paged book, I find it remarkable how much Lester has managed to pack in. Not only does he cover a great deal of American history, but he also considers larger moral and ethical questions about the importance of stories—those that diminish and those that empower, what it means to be human, and what freedom consists of. “Freedom from slavery was not the same as freedom to do whatever they [slaves] wanted.” It is “a promise we are still learning to keep.”

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Nigger.They called us that from our first cry to our last breath. It ain’t nothing but a word, some might say, but words hurt like whips and they leave scars you can’t see and what don’t never heal.” (Pg.12)

Powerful, beautiful, and so real—this illustrated history of slavery is a gem for real I am so glad I decided to read this nonfiction selection I mistakenly on first glance designated as a readaloud but after going through it realize it is definitely more of a research text and one to savor and enjoy not a story per se but a documentation of the hardship and heartache of Africans being taken from their home, stripped of all they know...A people existing at the mercy of those who saw them as less than and property to do with as they wish..It is definitely the most gut wrenching, senseless and emotionally shameful portions of history I feel I can never know enough about..this slave trade from 1518 to 1865 according to this book..You don’t have to know much to empathize with this horror and the illustrations really take you there and it was a truly engaging experience..The writing here is top notch with questions and experiences that really make you think and visualize how you would feel and what makes being a descendant from a slave a shameful and not a prideful fact for all African Americans…
“All of us need to understand who we are and what our place is in the scheme of things. Through stories we alight on the meaning and significance of our lives.” (Pg.27)
“The only way to cross over fear is to do what you are afraid of doing.” (Pg. 30)
“Ultimately no one can free anyone else. You have to free yourself. Somebody else can unlock the door and even push it ajar, but they can’t walk through it for you. You have to do that.” (Pg. 35)
This book was amazing, so powerful and so honest about its depiction of African Americans and their plight—there are engaging exercises, hypotheticals and examples of empathy you can teach with or read upon for reflection..I learned a lot from this one and hope my scholars can to..A well-deserved Five Star read and my first of the year!—highly recommended for sure!

[Adrienne]

I wish I could easily just give this book a rating out of 5 stars. However, there are so many issues that I have with it as a book for "all ages" that I can't rate it at all. I loved the book - personally, as an adult with an interest in history (particularly Afro-American history) I appreciated the photos and the storytelling. It is a raw and real book. However, the publisher deems this book for "all ages" and I take issue with that. On page 12, in particular, there is a piece of narrative that uses the N-word. I do not have an issue with this, in context, it is historical and the author and illustrator are men of color. However, I have difficulty digesting the prospect of a white schoolteacher reading this out loud to her class as a lesson on slavery/history/multiculturalism. I believe, at best, that middle schoolers are the youngest age to properly digest the figurative language and the abstract concepts presented in this story. However, those middle schoolers (who so desperately need to understand TRUE American history) may feel that this book is a "baby book" because of its size, layout and illustrations.
Ultimately, I enjoyed it and I appreciated the imagination exercises (despite the fact that they only directly mention White and Black readers, not Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics, etc.) but find it difficult to decided where to place it within the early childhood setting.

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the cover, this book has the guise as child lit; however, I would not read this book to young children. The images are astounding and the narrative compelling. It's definitely a book you should read as an adult before you let your children read it. There are two graphic images (i.e. the shadow of a slave who has been hanged) as well as a few uses of the "N" word. The author pulls in the reader through three imagination exercises, one directed at Whites, one at Blacks, and one for both. It is truly a moving portrayal of the slave experience, and on that note I would recommend it.

[Amy B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would suggest this book to secondary teachers. The illustrations are graphic and may not be appropriate for use with children under the age of 12. Lester writes the words of people that lived slavery and the images capture the life that occured during the time period. This book would be a great supplement to a classic textbook to help students get the point of view from a person who was there and lived during the time of slavery.

[Adriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an actual DESCENDANT of slaves who were stolen, raped, beaten, sold, maimed, tortured and killed by the millions, I believe they have the absolute prerogative to use the N-word in it's rawest most painful form to make people feel uncomfortable. It makes me feel uncomfortable! (And that's a good thing. If it didn't affect you in a negative way, then you need to go back and keep reading it until it sinks in.
With my fair-haired, freckle-faced, white-skinned mother and my dark-skinned, dark eyes, curly-haired father, I think I have a unique experience of having the best and the worst of both worlds.
It is difficult to reconcile that half of my bloodline experienced and survived these atrocities, and some of my white ancestors, may have actually OWNED other human beings as their property like they were less than dogs, and they slept at night thinking that was the acceptable thing to do?
It's heartbreaking.
I am also very disappointed to see so many reviews by WHITE-skinned people who dare to judge African-American authors and illustrators by their expression of how looking back on the horrors of slavery has affected them, and their art. Sitting here shaking my head at the ignorance of it all.

[Krystie Herndon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sure, this is a picture book, but it's not for little kids. Rod Brown's powerful oil paintings depicting slavery, from the barbaric and gruesome Middle Passage through emancipation, are paired with Julius Lester's hard-hitting challenges to 21st-century Black and White people, never to discount what happened. An important read for middle schoolers on up.

[Genevieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and gorgeously illustrated meditation on the slave trade, slavery and emancipation with a few imagination prompts. It's a picture book but meant for probably junior high and up. One of the most exquisitely painful pictures is of stacked rows of heads and feet, property stacked for crossing the ocean.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book that made me think.

[Emily McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upper level elementary slave life

[wildct2003 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short essays inspired by paintings in the book.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and creatively conceived. Heart-breaking and stark with a small side of hope for the future.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very powerful--the artwork is incredible. Be aware there is a racial slur used multiple times toward the beginning, in a way it would have been used historically.

[Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really, really powerful book which makes you think and put you in the shoes of the people during that time. I think it’s really a good exercise for children or adults to think as if they were in somebody else’s shoes.

All the artwork is paintings that are done by Rod Brown. The text makes the artwork even more powerful.

OK this is an interesting thing - they have an imagination exercise - one for white people, one for African-Americans, and one for whites and blacks.

It was also interesting to learn that slaves from North Carolina were taken in by the Cherokee Indians; slaves from Georgia and Alabama disappeared into Florida, which until 1819 belong to Spain which was outside the laws of the United States. The runaways joined with the Seminole Indians, and made forays back into Georgia and Alabama to free more slaves.

This is from the authors note:

Even more surprising was the degree to which I found myself addressing you, the reader, begging, pleading, imploring you not to be passive, but to invest soul, and imagine yourself into the images. Art and literature ask us to step out of our skins and put on the skins of others.

Parts of the story that stood out to me:

They took the sick and the dead, and dropped them into the sea like empty wine barrels. But wine barrels did not have a beating hearts, crying eyes, and screaming mouths.
—
Side-by-side, they lay: coffin straight, coffin narrow, coffin black. Side-by-side they lay, alive, alive, oh so alive.

It is difficult to imagine times and places long past. We must try if we are to redeem those times and ourselves. The means by which we can do this is the imagination, which gives flesh and blood and soul to the past - and present. Each of those millions of Africans was/is a story, just as you and I are stories.
—
Voice two: our bodies did what they had to do where we lay. Urine and excrement fell on me from above, and mine onto those below. The smell was as thick as hatred.
—
You have memories of those Africans too. Even if you’re white. Especially if you’re white.
—
Anger as hard as a mountain, anger as wide as hatred. Anger as dense as night, anger as long as ever.
—
Imagine a rage so fierce it would scorch the earth, leaving behind only a giant cinder to circle the sun. You do not have to be black to be this angry. Your ancestors need not have been Africans. You need only wonder: how would I feel if that happened to me?

When we can imagine the hurt and anger of another, we have an understanding in the heart. When we understand in the heart, each of us is less alone.
—
Who is more heroic? – Slaves like Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass, who fought back, or an anonymous slave holding onto his hat as white as cotton. We do not have to choose. Heroism has many faces. One is finding the eternal in the ordinary and touching forever in the every day.
—
The sound of the whip ripping black flesh, screams tearing still air. Then, silence in the sound of our own breath – starved screaming.
—
Imagine not the victim, but the aggressor. We may think that we would never whip someone until their flesh cried blood. But what if you would not be punished for doing it? What if your peers approved and deemed you honorable and good for beating someone? What then?

Evil is as mesmerizing as a snakes eyes. Though difficult, we must imagine our capacity for evil.

Unless and until we do, unseen shadows of hung men will blot the walls of our homes.
—
To have value in the heart of another. To value another in your heart. Is that not what it means to be human? If I value you in my heart, I would rather hurt myself than hurt you. If I value you in my heart.
—
Moss growing on the northside of trees, the shadows of trees, falling western north, and the north star
—
But crossing a river was minor compared to making the decision to escape. There are many more fears than there are rivers, and fears are harder to wade through.
—
The only way to cross over fear is to do what you are afraid of doing.
—
Ultimately, no one can free anyone else. You have to free yourself. Somebody else can unlock the door and even push it ajar, but they can’t walk through it for you. You have to do that.
—

[Alex Blose · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, the reader sees what it was really like to be a slave. From being on the ships coming over to America, to the auction blocks, to the slave owner's farms, and finally to being told you are free, but not knowing what to do with yourself. This book is broken up into several exercises, some being for Whites, some for Blacks, and some for both. In these exercises, you imagine being in these positions and what it was like to be either White or Black during the particular part of the story.

The illustrations in this book are magnificent. The color and the detail really show the emotions of the people in the pictures. They go so great with the words on the page that the photos could tell the story all by themselves.

Some of the things that are said in this book, the words that are used, and even a few of the pictures could make this book hard to use in a classroom, depending on who your students were. This book is a wonderful and informational piece of work, but it crosses the fine line in some parts of what is okay to use in a classroom (at least in my eyes).

As a future teacher, I would love to use this in my classroom, but like I already stated it would be very difficult to justify some of the things in the book as okay to use in the school. I think that this book would be great to use to get students to really put themselves in these people's situations at the time and could really get them to use critical thinking skills.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This picture book caught my attention from the very first line. Lester writes, “They took the sick and the dead and dropped them into the sea like empty wine barrels. But wine barrels did not have beating hearts, crying eyes, and screaming mouths.” It is depressing to read about how slave families were ripped apart and sold to different plantation owners. I thought this book was very sad. It made me think about what being a slave would really be like.
Lester uses illustrations by Rob Brown to tell stories of slaves. He explains each picture with a narrative about what the people in the picture would be thinking. This book goes into the history of slavery from the point of view of the slaves. Lester adds personal connections to make the book more heartfelt. This is a really wonderful book to introduce young adults to slavery.
Lester asks the reader to do several imagination exercises to visualize what is happening in the story. In my classroom, I would have the students do the activities in the picture book. Then, I would have them write a journal entry about how they felt when they imagined themselves in someone else’s place. I would also have them draw pictures to explain slavery in their own words. I would definitely use this book to start explaining important historical events from this time period such as how the slaves got to America, the Underground Railroad, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Civil War.

[Stephanie Linton · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent book about the journey of slaves from Africa, the Middle Passage, and America. Lester does a fantastic job in conveying a strong message to the readers--to put yourself in place of the slaves and the terrible experience they endured as slaves in America. As always, Lester's language is poignant, direct, and powerful. He implores the reader to imagine what it was like to be a slave with "imagination exercises." In addition, the illustrations by Rod Brown are exquisite and haunting at the same time. Brown's illustrations and Lester's words combine to create an unforgettable effect that haunts the reader long after he/she has finished the book.

Due to some language used by Lester, I think this book might be best suited for middle and high school levels. Although, in my opinion, good discussions about race in elementary grades are necessary. I guess it should be to the discretion of the teacher.

[Meltha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew. Okay, that was an emotional experience. This book does not pull punches at all. I have to believe that using this in a classroom would take a tremendous amount of skill. Picturebooks are being marketed to older audiences now, and this is definitely a book aimed at children who are, I would estimate, at least 11 or 12. There is discussion of murder, whippings, forced stripping, racial slurs, and torture. The pictures, which are haunting, show dead bodies, people shot in the head, scarring, and a variety of other atrocities. It's realistic and harsh and sad and maddening and infuriating and horrifying. I'm sure it will prompt discussion, but there is one problem. The author has one set of questions for white readers and another for black readers (and a third for both), but what if some of the children reading it aren't either, for example Asian children or Native Americans? That could prove problematic.

[Rachel White · Rating 1 out of 5]

This store was very true and vivid. The story is about everything from the passage to America to the whipping post for the african american slaves. The story uses the "n" word quite often, which I don't completely agree with, which honestly is why I gave it such a low rating and why I wouldn't recommend this story unless as a read aloud so that you, the teacher, could filter what is read and what isn't. As far as the story, I feel it was great and very factual. This book would be great for a history lesson.
The illustrations are brilliant paintings that show great detail and insight into what is going on in the story.

[Anna Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly powerful look at slavery from the Middle Passage to the post-war confusion. This is a great book to use with classes that are learning about imagery and making connections to the text. However, there is a certain amount of delicacy required as is usual when discussing issues of race and racism, especially with some of the language in the book (there are no swear words, but a certain racist epithet common to that time and context is used). Regardless, teachers should not shy away from using the text and images presented in their classroom.s The lessons this book can teach are too important to be ignored.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slave Ship to Freedom Road was an introductory book about slavery. I would use this book primarily for a classroom of 2nd or 3rd graders because of the illustrations in the book. Some of the illustrations are graphic, but portrayed the true meaning of what it was like to be a slave. I would use the word freedom as a teaching point during the book. I would ask, "Does anyone know what it really means to be free?" I think before this book I could ask the students what they knew about slavery, so I would have a base knowledge of what I needed to teach.

[Srb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful book that makes you think about your previous understanding of the slave journey. The pictures are very graphic and not to be taken lightly. The author presents "imagination exercises" that I believe are purposefully worded to inspire emotional reactions from the reader. I think it would be a great supplemental material to any textbook that discusses slavery because it would inspire students to think about the emotions beyond the facts of slavery.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

How can I put this? I take issue with the author using the word "nigger" so freely. It detracts from the message. He could have perfectly used "nigra" or "nigga" or even "darkie," which were much more common. Guess he didn't have room to get into it. After all, it seems--and appears--to be written at the elementary school level and society is attempting to weed that word out. It's people like this that are perpetuating its usage.

[Linda Lipko · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly powerful book, the art work dominates the tale of the injustice of capturing black men and boys, packing them in the cargo hold one on top of the other, shackled with little room to breath. The images follow the brutality of slavery and the beating down of body and soul through the time of freedom.

So often, freedom equated to no where to go and little talents to be used other than raw physical power.

[Riegs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brutally honest about the Black American slave experience, so it should be shared with cultural sensitivity in mind. It asks the listeners to imagine what rage, helplessness, and grief feels like. There are explicit references to dead bodies, the N word, abuse, murder, stolen children, and lynchings. The process of stripping Black Americans of their cultural identities is also explicit. It should be frontloaded with explanations.

[Alexis Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good read for a unit plan on the Civil War and the event that occurred prior to it. I like how it discussed the ships that came from Africa. I would be cautious about the age range in which I would allow to view this book for there are some graphic illustrations that bring the beatings that occurred to life.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

great illustrations from paintings by Rod Brown. good companion for "To Be A Slave" for a younger audience.
Age Range: 8 - 12 years
Grade Level: 3 - 7
Lexile Measure: AD720L
AD = Adult Directed
In Lexile system picture books are frequently considered for an AD or "adult directed" code because they are usually read to a child, rather than a child reading them independently.

[Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another powerful slave experience. This is written as a children's book; however, it's far from one. The pictures easily tell a story on thier own. This tale is raw and doesn't beat around the bush at all. Worth the read.

[Emily Ackmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great. It teaches about slavery and does it in a very creative way. The brain activities are created for different races and is a scenario to consider while thinking about slavery. This would be a great teaching tool for middle schoolers.

[Shalante Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This piece of literature tells the raw truth about Slavery in its simpliest form. The photos by rod brown amazing, and tells a store with in it self. This book although for children and or young adalts. This is a great read for Adults as well.