Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation

Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation
by Pat Sherman, illustrated by Floyd Cooper, 2010. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. (9780802853196).

Author Website: none

Illustrator Website: http://www.floydcooper.com/

Media: oil wash on board

Awards and Honors: none

Annotation: The true story of Ben, a young slave who teaches himself to read in a time when literacy was forbidden for African Americans. His ability to read proves important to others when President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.

Personal Reaction: Author Pat Sherman and Coretta Scott King Award winning illustrator, Floyd Cooper tell the touching true story of Benjamin Holmes, a young slave living during the Civil War who teaches himself to read. Ben's father teaches him the alphabet before he is sold and when Ben is apprenticed to a tailor in Charleston he practices reading while running errands for his boss. Ben reads street signs, shopping lists and even bits of discarded newspaper.

    Ben knows to hide the fact that he can read and write- it's dangerous for a slave to be educated and he has to be very careful. But he is not able to hide his reading and writing from the other slaves for long. Word gets around and wherever Ben's errands take him slaves implore Ben to teach them to read and write. Before long the Union Army pushes closer towards Charleston and Ben's employer flees, leaving Ben in a slave prison. Weeks pass while Ben and his fellow prisoners are cut off from any news of the War. One night the prisoners bribe a guard to get the latest copy of the Charleston Mercury and ask Ben to read the message from Abraham Lincoln that is printed inside- the Emancipation Proclamation. The author's note tells readers that Ben did not immediately gain his freedom but ended up working in several businesses. He eventually enrolled in Nashville's Fisk University, traveled internationally with Fisk's chorus and taught in a rural school before dying of tuberculosis sometime during the 1870s.

   The story is a testament to the power of the written word and the liberating force of education. Pat Sherman has done a wonderful job of telling Ben's story so that it is powerfully moving without being sentimental or saccharine. Floyd Cooper's expressive and sensitively rendered illustrations  pair well with Sherman's prose. Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation would make an excellent book to use with elementary aged children in lessons on slavery and the Civil War.

Curriculum Connection: 4th Grade, Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation