In Barbados, I saw the statue of Bussa, the slave who led a rebellion against the plantation owners in 1816. In St. Lucia, family members proudly told me that they lived on land where maroons used to be—the people who managed to escape and make a life for themselves outside the plantations. I wanted River Sing Me Home to build on this idea of what it means to be free, and the ways in which enslaved people made freedom for themselves.
