num_pages: 34
description: Chosen as a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2016 this poetic nonfiction story about a little-known piece of African American history captures a humans capacity to find hope and joy in difficult circumstances and demonstrates how New Orleans' Congo Square was truly freedoms heart.Mondays there were hogs to slopmules to train and logs to chop.Slavery was 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 at least for half a day they were briefly able 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 forget their cares their struggles and their oppression. This story chronicles slaves' duties each day 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 will have a forward from Freddi Williams Evans (freddievans.com) a historian and Congo Square expert as well as a glossary of terms with pronunciations and definitions.AWARDS:A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2016A School Library Journal Best Book of 2016: NonfictionStarred reviews from School Library Journal Booklist Kirkus Reviews and The Horn Book Magazine
language: English
title: Freedom in Congo Square
publisher: little bee books