Freedom Over Me
Eleven Slaves, Their Lives, and Dreams Brought to Life

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend. In July of 1828, Mrs. Fairchild sold her estate after the death of her husband. The sale of her estate included the appraisal and auction of eleven slaves, listed in simple terms along with a selling price on a......more

Who gives voice to the voiceless? What are your credentials when you do so? When I was a teen I used to go into antique stores and buy old family photographs from the turn of the century. It still seems odd to me that this is allowed. I’d find the people who looked the most interesting, like they ha......more

This is a fictionalized account of real people who lived enslaved on a real plantation in the American south in the mid 1800's. This book imagines the outer and inner lives of those enslaved on the Fairchilds estate. The gorgeous illustrations draw upon each individual's life story as an enslaved pe......more

The concept of this picturebook seemed promising: from just a name, gender and price of 11 slaves listed in the Fairchilds Appraisment of the Estate document from July 5, 1828, Ashley Bryan invents the lives and dreams of these objectified people, in such a way giving them back their humanity. (By t......more

This captures African culture and universal human desires juxtaposed with slavery. I'm living in South Africa. Last weekend we went to Soweto to see Nelson Mandela's house. A young man wanting money walked us across the street pounding on his chest creating a drumbeat and singing a Soweto welcome so......more