Freedom’s School

In dozens of ways Freedom’s School shows how important education was to the community recently freed from slavery, immediately following the Emancipation Proclamation. For them education meant freedom. Even though every available family member had to toil long hours and make huge sacrifices to ensure children had an opportunity to learn, getting an education was worth it. Readers experience the long walk to school, entering school for the first time, and what it was like to use chalk to practice their alphabet on black slates. Readers watch the father of two older boys, well beyond regular school age, negotiate with the teacher to allow them to receive an education. Stealing hope from the community members, readers also experience the school house burning down. But the community rebounds and gathers to rebuild the school.

Artist James E Ransome uses rich, almost heart-felt illustrations, vividly portraying the hard life of the community, but—with a school—one of hope. Freedom’s School is an excellent story, written with rich metaphors, and a springboard for discussion of a community carving out their new lives.