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Searching... Sunnyside Branch Library (Fresno Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Children's Non-Fiction Area | 306.362 WOE | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Tulare Public Library | Searching... Unknown | Juvenile Picture Book | Woelfle | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"All men are born free and equal."
Everybody knows about the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But the founders weren't the only ones who believed that everyone had a right to freedom. Mumbet, a Massachusetts enslaved person, believed it too. She longed to be free, but how? Would anyone help her in her fight for freedom? Could she win against the richest man in town?
Mumbet was determined to try.
Mumbet's Declaration of Independence tells her story for the first time in a picture book biography, and her brave actions set a milestone on the road toward ending slavery in the United States.
"The case is fascinating, emphasizing the destructive irony at the heart of the birth of America and making Mumbet an active and savvy architect of her own release, and this is likely to spur much discussion." --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-5-This brief slice of history takes place in 1780s Massachusetts, where an intelligent and strong slave woman was known as Mumbet by the household's slave children and Betty by her owners, the Ashleys. Although Mumbet could neither read nor write, she could listen, and after hearing her owner talk about the Massachusetts Constitution provision that "all men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights," Mumbet wondered about herself. She approached a young lawyer named Theodore Sedgewick who agreed to represent Mumbet and then went on to win her freedom and that of 5,000 Massachusetts slaves. Susie Berneis is the voice artist who narrates the story and captures Mumbet's and the other characters' voices with sensitivity and conviction. VERDICT This deceptively simple story is an excellent introduction to the powerful and noble liberties outlined in our state and national constitutions.-Mary Lee Bulat, Harwinton Public Library, CT © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A slave named Mumbet, who successfully sued for her own freedom in 1781 Massachusetts, is the subject of this powerfully told biography. Suffering under a cruel mistress, Mumbet seeks solace in the freely running rivers of the landscape and in her own mind. Woelfle draws clear parallels between the Massachusetts colonists' discontent and the freedom Mumbet craves: " 'The King means to take away our rights!' one man shouted. Do I have rights? wondered Mumbet." Delinois's thick layers of paint and vibrant palette infuse even the story's upsetting moments with hopefulness, and Mumbet herself glows with determination and integrity. An author's note addresses how many details of Mumbet's life were lost to history, yet her story stands as a potent reminder that the freedoms that accompanied the American Revolution left many behind. Ages 6-10. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
It's easy to forget that people in the North owned slaves, or that five thousand slaves lived in Massachusetts before slavery was declared unconstitutional there in 1783, meaning that many of the colonists fighting for freedom from English rule were holding slaves at the time of the War for Independence. One such enslaved woman was Mumbet, a "servant for life" to the Ashley family. Talk around the Ashley table about freedom from England led Mumbet to a lawyer in town and then to her eventual freedom -- and to the freeing of all slaves in Massachusetts. Woelfle keeps the spotlight on Mumbet and brings her to life as a strong, smart person. Using a vibrant acrylic palette, Delinois highlights the brilliant greens and blues of the Berkshires setting and allows the light to play on Mumbet's face to show both her humor and strength. Cruel Mrs. Ashley receives her own treatment; her face is nearly always contorted in anger. Though many have not heard the story of Mumbet before, no one who reads it now will ever forget it. The fascinating author's note and bibliography will make curious readers wonder why Mumbet's story is not better known. robin l. smith (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
With the words of Massachusetts colonial rebels ringing in her ears, a slave determines to win her freedom. In 1780, Mumbet heard the words of the new Massachusetts constitution, including its declaration of freedom and equality. With the help of a young lawyer, she went to court and the following year, won her freedom, becoming Elizabeth Freeman. Slavery was declared illegal and subsequently outlawed in the state. Woelfle writes with fervor as she describes Mumbet's life in the household of John Ashley, a rich landowner and businessman who hosted protest meetings against British taxation. His wife was abrasive and abusive, striking out with a coal shovel at a young girl, possibly Mumbet's daughter. Mumbet deflected the blow and regarded the wound as "her badge of bravery." Ironically, the lawyer who took her case, Theodore Sedgwick, had attended John Ashley's meetings. Delinois' full-bleed paintings are heroic in scale, richly textured and vibrant. Typography becomes part of the page design as the font increases when the text mentions freedom. Another slave in the Ashley household was named in the court case, but Woelfle, keeping her young audience in mind, keeps it simple, wisely focusing on Mumbet. A life devoted to freedom and dignity, worthy of praise and remembrance. (author's note, selected bibliography, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Mumbet is owned by Colonel John Ashley, but she longs to be free. As the Founding Fathers work on the Declaration of Independence, Mumbet overhears the men discussing the phrase, free and independent. Seven years later, when Mumbet slips into the back of a town hall meeting about the Massachusetts Constitution, she hears, All men are born free and equal and she decides to test the new law. So she visits a young lawyer who is so impressed with her determination that he decides to take her case. Surprisingly, Mumbet won freedom for herself and her daughter, and her case led to slavery being declared unconstitutional in Massachusetts in 1783. Mumbet's still largely unknown story came to light through letters and journal entries written by her lawyer's daughter. Delinois' minimalist but highly evocative acrylic illustrations add depth to the sensitive, inspiring text. A great addition to picture-book collections of American history.--Petty, J. B. Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
HOW DOES ONE teach children about the violence of history? How does one teach them to confront loss in the present day? Three new books take on these challenging tasks in the context of African-American lives. "Mumbet didn't have a last name because she was a slave." So begins Gretchen Woelfle's "Mumbet's Declaration of Independence," which tells the story of a remarkable figure in American colonial history. Known as Bett or Betty, although some children "fondly called her Mom Bett or Mumbet," she successfully sued her owner, John Ashley, "the richest man in Berkshire County, Mass.," for her emancipation, and once liberated chose to name herself Elizabeth Freeman. Alix Delinois's illustrations beautifully balance the intensity of this history lesson. The opening pages feature seven portraits of Mumbet in different states of thought and emotion. Pensive, determined and graceful, she wears a white bonnet (outlined by bright reds and yellows) in poses that highlight the complex and dynamic human being she must have been. Having overheard discussions of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, which states that "All men are born free and equal," Mumbet enlists the help of an attorney, Theodore Sedgwick (father of Catharine Maria Sedgwick, who would later record Mumbet's story), to challenge her enslavement. "I am not a dumb creature," Mumbet says. "I deserve my freedom." Two years after she brought her case, a judge declared slavery illegal in the state of Massachusetts, which in turn led to the freeing of 5,000 slaves. Woelfle's narrative skillfully keeps Mumbet at center, focusing on Mumbet's struggles against her mistress, Mrs. Ashley, who did not have the right to own property yet "owned the sharpest tongue in town." Her verbal and physical cruelty toward Mumbet and Mumbet's daughter, Lizzy, challenges the common belief that white women were passive spectators of slavery's violence and the sentimental allies of slaves. Mumbet, a protective mother, is so eager for her own and her daughter's freedom that she uses the Revolution's egalitarian rhetoric to declare their independence. Woelfle's narrative and her appended notes and references offer opportunities for discussing nuances in the history of American slavery. In "Under the Same Sun," Sharon Robinson, the daughter of the baseball legend Jackie Robinson, also deals with the history of slavery but folds it into a story about a modern-day family reunion. Auntie Sharon and Grandmother Bibi travel from America to Tanzania to visit David (Sharon's brother and Bibi's son, who grew up in Connecticut but has lived in Tanzania since 1984), his wife and their seven children. The reunited family goes on safari in Serengeti National Park to celebrate Bibi's 85th birthday. Here AG Ford's illustrations of gazelles, lions, giraffes and elephants provide a welcome burst of energy in an otherwise sweet but not particularly dramatic story. At the end of their trip, the group visits the coastal town of Bagamoyo (Swahili for "to let go of one's heart"), where David tells his African-born children the town's sad past as a slave-trading post. "We are much more fortunate than our African ancestors who were forced to leave the country that they loved and had no chance of returning. We are blessed with the freedom to travel back and forth." Based on personal experience, Robinson's book introduces young readers to a family living on two different continents and speaking different languages, English and Swahili. Emphasizing the family reunion in the context of the African diaspora offers a somewhat romantic if uplifting opportunity to learn about a tragic history. AT FIRST GLANCE there seems to be nothing so uplifting about Daniel Beaty's "Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me," winner of the 2014 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Book Award. Every morning a boy and his father play a game. When the father goes "Knock Knock," the boy pretends to be asleep until his dad approaches. "Then I get up and jump into his arms." But one day, and every day after, the boy's father fails to appear. The boy writes him a letter: "Papa, come home, 'cause I want to be just like you, but I'm forgetting who you are." Two months later, a letter from the father finally arrives explaining that he will not be coming home, and that from now on, the boy must use the advice in the letter to guide him: "Dribble the page with the brilliance of your ballpoint pen," the father writes. "Knock Knock down the doors that I could not," he says. "Knock Knock for me, for as long as you become your best, the best of me still lives in you." We read the father's letter as we watch the boy grow into a man, becoming a builder as well as a husband and father. Bryan Collier's richly textured illustrations and the lyricism of Beaty's text - with its echoes of spoken-word poetry - make this story of bereavement also a story of possibility and beauty. Collier gives the boy's world a three-dimensional feel: We see him staring at his father's hat in a collage that melds his home and urban environment against a receding blue sky. That sky disappears entirely as the boy grapples with his grief, only to reappear in a wider expanse when he grows up. Details like the hat and a set of elephants recur to symbolize loss and forgetting, while the texture of paper, the father's ties (worn again eventually by the son) and other objects suggest the persistence of memory. Although a note by the author suggests that the story is based on Beaty's father's incarceration, the narrative never explains why the father has left, allowing Beaty to address parental absence of any kind and speak more generally to the challenges of growing up when the cards seem to be stacked against you. "Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream For Me" is the most intimate of the three books and perhaps the one that best illustrates W. H. Auden's wise observation that "there are no good books which are only for children." GLENDA R. CARPIÓ is a professor of African and African-American studies and English at Harvard and the author of "Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of Slavery."