Sale!

Freedom in Congo Square (Charlotte Zolotow Award)

Amazon.com Price:  $9.99 (as of 09/05/2019 03:00 PST- Details)

Description

Chosen as a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2016, this poetic, nonfiction story about a bit of-known piece of African American history captures a human’s capacity to find hope and joy in difficult circumstances and demonstrates how New Orleans’ Congo Square used to be actually freedom’s heart.

Mondays, there were hogs to slop,

mules to train, and logs to chop.

Slavery used to be no ways fair.

Six more days to Congo Square.

As slaves relentlessly toiled in an unjust system in 19th century Louisiana, they all counted down the days until Sunday, when a minimum of for half a day they were briefly in a position to congregate in Congo Square in New Orleans. Here they were free to set up an open market, sing, dance, and play music. They were free to put out of your mind their cares, their struggles, and their oppression. This story chronicles slaves’ duties on a daily basis, from chopping logs on Mondays to baking bread on Wednesdays to plucking hens on Saturday, and builds to the freedom of Sundays and the special experience of an afternoon spent in Congo Square. This book may have a forward from Freddi Williams Evans (freddievans.com), a historian and Congo Square expert, in addition to a thesaurus of terms with pronunciations and definitions.

AWARDS:

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2016

A School Library Journal Best Book of 2016: Nonfiction

Starred reviews from School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and The Horn Book Magazine

Home » Shop » Books » Subjects » Arts and Photography » History and Criticism » History » Americas » United States » 1800s » Freedom in Congo Square (Charlotte Zolotow Award)

Recent Products