Taking Liberty

Rinaldi, Ann. 2002. TAKING LIBERTY: THE STORY OF ONEY JUDGE, GEORGE WASHINGTON’S RUNAWAY SLAVE.

Taking Liberty is the remarkable story--straight from history--of a slave woman who took liberty the only way she could. Born a slave, Oney Judge was the daughter of a slave that was ‘privileged’ enough to work in the big house as a seamstress and a white man who was an indentured servant. Taught and trained in her early years in the arts that would entitle her to work in the house rather than the field, she often thought herself lucky compared to the other slaves. Belonging to George Washington is a kind of privilege as well. Knowing that they belong to such a respectable, important man--the novel begins out in the years leading up to the revolutionary war--gives everyone an air of importance. As she grows up, she becomes a pet not only of the other house servants but of the mistress as well. Martha Washington takes a particular fondness for her. She secretly learns to read with her mistresses’ approval, and she is granted more and more luxuries. Now wearing finer clothes and given more privileges, her mother becomes crazy with jealous. Stressing to her daughter that no matter how much of a ‘pet’ she becomes she will always be a slave, her mother makes attempt after attempt to escape and rebel. During the war years, Oney is a good, obedient slave. She takes pride in her master and mistress. She is now the confidante of Martha. She goes everywhere with her. But her mother--now relegated to the field for her rebellious and crazy nature--remains resolute. When the British soldiers come to the plantation--Mount Vernon--she is one of the slaves that takes the British at the word that they’ll be freed if they switch allegiance. But with each passing year, Oney becomes more and more fascinated with the idea of liberty and freedom. Will she ever be brave enough, smart enough, resourceful enough to wage her own war against the system? Set during the revolutionary war and the first term of his presidency, TAKING LIBERTY is a wonderfully honest and emotional journey of one woman’s journey to freedom.

Sinda was another saltwater Negro. Born in Africa...we children loved to visit her...this was how I learned about life around me, the past of both the whites and the Negroes. It all became my past. Sometimes I mixed up people in Virginia society with African tribes. When there was fear, after the general left, that the British would come up the Potomac and seize Lady Washington and burn the place, I saw in my head Sambo Anderson’s village burned by the Hausa tribe. I saw Lady Washington with a leather thong around her neck, marched for miles to the sea... (19-22)

When you learn about someone, hear their stories, you tote them around. They flow in your blood and your dreams. They become a part of you. So that when something bad happens to you, there is something to liken it to. I know someone else it happened to. And he still lives and breathes. So, when I was four and my daddy left, I cried, but I understood. He became part of the Gone. (23)

It was all Patrick Henry’s fault that my daddy left. That’s what my mama said... ‘Give me Liberty or give me death’ sounded wonderful in there, with the fire crackling and us sewing. It didn’t sound so wonderful in our dwelling when Daddy told Mama he was taking his liberty and leaving. (24)

Sally’s (an old servant who was Mrs. Washington’s personal maid) advice to her replacement:
’White peoples will sometimes say things to each other in front of you. Give no never mind to you bein’ in the room. Like you a chair. If they do, you act like a chair.’ ‘How do I act like a chair?’ ‘Do a chair talk? Do a chair allow that it hear sumpthin’? Do a chair tell what it hear?’ So I acted like a chair. (102)

I don’t suppose it matters if you’re Negro or white. If your mama doesn’t love you, you’ve got no color. You’ve got nothing. (124)

White children have childhoods. Negro slave children don’t. If there are moments of joy, afternoons of splashing in a brook, playing ‘prisoner’s base’ or a game with clay marbles in the dust, the moment lives forever in the memory because it must. So little joy comes after. (132)

Remembering eases the pain. We can choose what we wish to remember and pretend that the things we wish to forget never happened. (136)

The Color of Fire

Rinaldi, Ann. 2005. THE COLOR OF FIRE. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 0786809388

Based on an historical event, THE COLOR OF FIRE, although fictionalized, is set during the "great Negro plot" of New York City in 1741. Phoebe is a slave of Assemblyman Philipse, and because her owner is a prominent man, she is given some amount of freedom--she is allowed to walk the streets alone and essentially go about her errands unquestioned. Her good friend, Cuffee, isn't so fortunate. Cuffee, who also works for Philipse, is the son of a man the town burned at the stake for allegedly taking place in an uprising. He is watched carefully and is always one of the prime suspects when something troubling happens. In 1741, there are series of fires set all over town. Rumors are flying around that the slaves are uprising. During this time of unrest, an almost unbelievable offer is made. Any slave or indentured servant who will give testimony or evidence against those setting the fires or uprising will earn his/her freedom. Phoebe dreams of one day being free, but is it really moral to gain freedom by naming names...when you don't really know who is setting the fires? Already some of her friends and acquaintances are coming forward listing dozens of names--mostly slaves. More and more slaves are being arrested, questioned, tried, and executed either by hanging or being burned at the stake. Cuffee is one of the slaves being named as a conspirator. When he is arrested, Phoebe's world is shaken. How can innocent people be jailed just because someone accuses them of this horrible wrongdoing just to earn their own freedom. Phoebe's choices are hard ones. But ultimately, she has to make the decision that's right for her.

THE COLOR OF FIRE is a compelling read. It offers an inside-look of an often-unfamiliar time period in American history. It examines the horrors of slavery, the mob mentality often only associated with the Salem witch trials, and the injustice and cruelty of the legal system. It is often difficult to read about the social injustice and prejudice experienced by African-Americans in the past, but it is necessary and benfecial as well. Rinaldi does a good job in THE COLOR OF FIRE of blending fiction with historical fact.

In My Father's House

Rinaldi, Ann. 1993. In My Father’s House.

IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE is an interesting historical novel based on actual historical events. Did you know that the land where the first battle of the Civil War took place was owned by the same man whose land provided the place for the signing of the Confederates’ surrender? Yes, the Civil War began on Will McLean’s property and ended on his property. Will McLean was a man who saw the collapse of the South years before the first battle of the Civil War took place. Considering himself a man of the New South, he raised his family to be more open-minded towards life. He even hired a Yankee governess for his children to tutor them. Oscie is Will McLean’s stepdaughter. Her father died when she was a young child--five or six--and Daddy Will has been the one to raise her for better or worse. Oscie is our young narrator. She provides a behind-the-scenes look at life on a plantation from 1852 to the close of the Civil War in 1865. As she grows up, she learns many life lessons--about life, love, family, and duty. She has difficulty at first deciding what exactly she believes and who she supports. Yet, as the civil war begins--she realizes as does her stepfather--that the Confederate cause is not only ill fated or doomed but that it deserves to be defeated so that something better can begin. Not an easy position to take when most of your neighbors would violently oppose your opinions if you aired them. But sometimes the right road isn’t always the easiest.

Mine Eyes Have Seen

Rinaldi, Ann. 1998. MINE EYES HAVE SEEN.

MINE EYES HAVE SEEN is a fictional portrayal of an historical event. In the summer of 1859, our heroine Annie Brown makes her way south with her sister-in-law to visit her father, John Brown, who under the name of Isaac Smith, has taken up residence near Harpers Ferry. Annie is fifteen, in love with life, and completely unsure about the sanity of her father. Annie has a love/hate relationship with this power-hungry, irrational abusive man. As do many of her brothers and sisters. Posted as watchdog, Annie provides readers an inside look into a dark period in American history.

Here is what the author's note has to say:

Fifteen years old in 1859, Annie came down from the Brown place in North elba, New York, with her seventeen-year-old sister-in-law, Martha, to help keep house for the Provisional Army and to make life at the Kennedy farm appear normal. She was assigned the task of "watchdog"--keeping watch on the porch for approaching strangers. The farm-house was soon full of men, eighteen in all (one arrived right before Annie and Martha left, two after). It was Annie's job to keep the men from running off, warn the inhabitants of the house when a stranger was approaching, and generally keep curious eyes at bay. John Brown could not have it known that so many men were living at the farmhouse, that he was receiving and storing arms there, and that some of the men were Negro. So Annie had her work cut out for her. Indeed, in some of the books on John Brown there are excerpts of Annie's account of life on the farm that summer. From these accounts, written by Annie in her later years when she was Mrs. Annie Brown Adams, I learned the nucleus of facts about that summer in Maryland, her description of some of the men, her chores, the newspapers her father subscribed to, the dog Cuffee, the description of the house, and, of course Mrs. Huffmaster.

Author Spotlight: Ann Rinaldi

Spotlight On: Ann Rinaldi
Author Website http://www.annrinaldi.com/
About the Author:

• Ann Rinaldi was born in New York City on August 27, 1934.
  
• Discouraged by her family from writing and pursuing further education at college, she went into the business world and became a secretary.
  
• In 1960, Ann married Ron Rinaldi. While raising her two sons, she decided she wanted to become a writer. After a few failed attempts at novel-writing, she decided to start small and begin by writing newspaper columns.
  
• Her first creative piece of fiction was published in 1979.
  
• As to why she writes historical fiction: Ann was drawn into the study of American history when her son, Ron, became involved in Revolutionary War reenactments while he was in high school. After visiting historical sites, participating in reenactments, and ". . .see[ing] the history. . .as it was, from the bottom up, hands on, instead of out of a history book," Ann was addicted.
  
• As to why she writes for young adults: Ann Rinaldi explains, "I write young adult novels because I like writing them. But, as with my first book, I don't write for young people. I just write. Real life, as I know it, as I've learned it to be from my newspaper experience and own past, goes into my books. I draw all my characters fully, give my adults as many problems and as much dimension as the young protaganist. I give my readers good writing, literary writing. My books have been praised for the strength of my characters and my dialogue. "
  

Today I am beginning my author study on Ann Rinaldi. Today's review is NINE DAYS A QUEEN which was published in 2005.

Rinaldi, Ann. 2005. NINE DAYS A QUEEN.

When I first read NINE DAYS A QUEEN, I was not the self-proclaimed expert I am now on all things Tudor having worked my way through all four of Carolyn Meyer's historical novels or David Starkey's Six Wives of Henry the VIII. But I recognized it as a good story even then. Later, when I first began reading Meyer, I searched my memory and said I must go back and reread that one and see this all from Jane's eyes. But perhaps I'm rambling too much. NINE DAYS A QUEEN is the story of Jane Grey's childhood and adolescence. The daughter of a very important family--a titled family--she spent at least a year or two at court in London. As a child, she was a favorite playmate of Edward. She was on familiar terms with the other royal children as well, Mary and Elizabeth. The story focuses on her time spent at court and on her time spent with Katherine Parr and Sir Thomas Seymour--the former queen who was widowed and her new husband. Also in that household was Princess Elizabeth. Through it all, Jane Grey remains a likeable character. Mistreated by her family, she trusts no one really. She's come to view life as a skeptic. She's seen how dangerous it is to get involved with the royal family and the power struggle. She's seen close loved ones pay with their lives. Now, as a teen (fifteen or sixteen) her family involves her in a dangerous power play. Her husband and father-in-law have determined to make her queen instead of Princess Mary. Why? Because they don't want a Catholic on the throne. So manipulating the dying king, Jane is named next in line for the throne. Does Jane want to be queen? NO! There is nothing tempting her to claim power and wield the authority of life and death over her subjects. But can she escape the throne with her life?

NINE DAYS A QUEEN pairs well with Carolyn Meyer's series on others in the Tudor family: MARY, BLOOD MARY, BEWARE, PRINCESS ELIZABETH, DOOMED QUEEN ANNE, and PATIENCE, PRINCESS CATHERINE. These books show both the glamour and the danger that being royal involves.