May/June Character Feature
This issue's featured girl: Addy
From the American Girls Club Handbook:
Women fought slavery in different ways. Write a poem telling how you feel about an event in Addy's time.
1) Choose an event from Addy's time, such as an escape on the Underground Railroad or a Civil War battle. Ask a librarian to hep you find out more about the event.
2) As you read about the event, write down words or images that describe the event. Make sure that the words tell exactly what you want to expres.
3) Write a poem that expresses your feelings about the event. Remember, poems do not have to rhyme. Read your poem aloud to family and friends.
She Wanted to be Free
The first time Harriet Tubman tried to run away from slavery, she was six years old. Harriet was beaten for her attempt, but she knew she wanted to be free. She listened to whispers about the Underground Railroad, a secret path to freedom. When she finally did escape, she missed her friends and family so much that she came back and led them to freedom. Harriet returned again and again, leading more than three hundred slaves to freedom. To avoid being captured she traveled in clever disguises. Once she even passed her old master on the street. To make sure he didn't recognize her, she let go of some live chickens she was carrying and chased them away from her master. The master lauged and said, "Go get 'em, Granny!" Although she was almost captured many times, Harriet Tubman boasted that she never lost one passenger on her Underground Railroad. She said of her fight to be free, "No man should take me alive; I should fight for liberty as long as my strength lasted."
Did you know?
Before and during the Civil War, many men and women fought to abolish, or end, slavery. These fighters who wrote, marched, spoke, and protested against slavery were knows as abolitionists. One of the most powerful abolitionists was six-foot-tall Sojourner Truth, who walked all over America preaching an end to slavery. Laughing at people who though women were weak, she said, "I could work as much and eat as much as any man, and bear the lash as well . . . and ain't I a woman?" Harriet Beecher Stowe was a teacher and writer. After seeing the horrors of the slave trade in Kentucky, she wrote a book about the cruelty of slavery. The book, called Uncle Tom's Cabin, was published in 1852. It became a bestseller all over the world and changed people's ideas about slavery.
Project two: Sing a Spiritual
In Addy's time, African Americans in the South were not allowed to read. In church, they sang hymns called spirituals from memory. Memorize a spiritual from Addy's time and sing it for an audience.
1) Ask your librarian to help you find recordings of spirituals, such as "This Little Light of Mine," "Steal Away," or "Climb, Climb Up Sunshine Mountain."
2) Learn the song as Addy might have--by listening! Listen to the words all the way through a few times, and then try to sing along. Think about why the words were important to girls like Addy.
3) When you have memorized the song, sing it for an audience. Sing along with the recording, sing with a group of friends, or give a solo performance.
Did you know?
Spirituals are religious songs that were created by enslaved people long before Addy was born. Slaves combined rhythms and melodies from Africa with the religious lessons they learned in America. Enslaved people were not allowed to read or write, so they couldn't write down their thoughts and feelings. Instead, they expressed their suffering, protest, joy, and hope through singing. Spirituals were also a sort of secret language. If slaves were making plans to escape, they might sing, "I am Bound for the Promised Land." For white people, the "promised land" meant heaven. But for enslaved people, it meant freedom in the North. [Ann's note: Some songs, like "Steal Away," actually signaled to other slaves when the escapes would take place!] Addy learned spirituals from her parents, and she carried those songs in her heart when she escaped to the North. One day she would teach them to her own children, so the thoughts and feelings of their ancestors would live on in their hearts too.
Want to know more?
Fiction books set in Addy's time:
"Next Stop, Freedom" by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
"Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt" by Deborah Hopkinson
Nonfiction books about Addy's time:
"Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom" by Virginia Hamilton
"War, Terrible War" by Joy Hakim
Movies set in Addy's time:
Little Women
Shenandoah
Tom Sawyer
Music from Addy's Time:
"Goober Peas"
"This Little Light of Mine"
"When Johnny Comes Marching Home"
A special place to visit:
Harriet Tubman House
180 South Street
Auburn, NY 13021
Home of Harriet Tubman and former stop on the Underground Railroad
