From Slave Ship to Freedom Road
Ron Brown is the illustrator of From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, a book, by Julius Lester, an award winning African American author of stories for children. Both men are African Americans. In this text, we are presented with a series of paintings, created by Brown, portraying the story of slavery from the beginnings during the infamous passage to the Americas, through centuries of subjugation, and, finally, to freedom. Though his pictures vividly show us the horrors of slavery, they also capture the spirit of resistance etched on the faces of his subjects. There is anger, but there is also hope. They have a decidedly different quality from those of Faith Ringgold and Jacob Lawrence which will be discussed when we encounter their works.
Author, Lester, draws the reader into the pictures and his narrative. He is honest in his approach to the factual history of slavery, going beyond what usually appears in most history books. For example, he tells us that slavery was a business in which people wanted to make money and he points out that in saying that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, one neglects giving credit for what slaves and free blacks did for themselves and for the country as a whole. He asks the readers basic questions, forcing them into the minds and situations of those who lived under slavery.
The author's probing approach and the artist's emotional depictions provide students with material which should help them to view a clearer picture of the presence and nature of African American resistance during slavery and the Civil War. The author's actual questions provide ideal motivation for discussion and for research and creative writing assignments.
