French / France
Libre! Harriet Tubman, une héroïne américaine
(Free! Harriet Tubman, an American heroine)
Daugey, Fleur
(text)
Charpentier, Olivier
(illus.)
Arles: Actes Sud junior, [2020]. – [41] p.
ISBN 978-2-330-13690-1
USA | Tubman, Harriet (1820-1913) | Slavery | Resistance | Freedom | Underground Railroad | Non-fiction
Reading age: 9+
White Ravens issue: 2021
The so-called “Underground Railroad” existed as an informal “human smuggling network” from 1780 to about 1850. Its agents moved enslaved African Americans by secret routes and hideaways from the Southern States to the (“safer”) Northern States of the USA. The African American woman Harriet Tubman is likely the best-known member of that organization. She freed herself from slavery at twenty-nine years of age. She returned to the Southern States about twenty times, convoying 300 people to freedom at great risk. Illustrated by Olivier Charpentier, Fleur Daugey’s book “Libre!” portrays this successful resistance through the lens of Tubman’s life as well as some of her comrades, such as Frederick Douglas. The author also provides details on the meaning and consequences of slavery in America and beyond. The book ends with a look at other forms of this system of domination and “business model” that has been used the world over. France’s role is touched on rather too briefly in that respect. [SW]