Escape Into the Night
Page 15
Why did Libby suddenly understand the relationship between Caleb and her father?
When Mr. Kimberly told Caleb it was dangerous for him to come to Salem, what did Caleb answer?
When Caleb asked, “Will you forgive me for bringing danger to your house?”, how did Mr. Kimberly answer?
Let’s Talk About … God’s leading
What did Jordan tell Emma? Why did she believe him? (ch. 16)
What is the difference between God telling us to do something and ourselves telling us to do it?
When Jordan gave a warning, Caleb asked, “Remember Pastor Salter’s prayer?” As Caleb remembered those words, how did he know what to do? (ch. 17)
In what ways was Emma stronger than Libby in a time of danger? How did Emma know where it was safe to cross? (ch. 18)
Who has become part of Libby’s never-give-up family? (ch. 19) In what ways has Libby changed since the beginning of this book? What kind of person was she at the beginning? What kind of person is she now?
Why did Libby ask forgiveness of each person before she left the barn?
Caleb told her, “Libby, just do what’s in front of you.” What did he mean?
How did Caleb pray for her? Why does it seem safe to talk to God the way Caleb did?
Let’s Talk About … Digging deeper
Different fugitive slave laws were passed at different times. Look under Fugitive slave laws in an encyclopedia such as World Book and read about a clause in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Read about another fugitive law passed in the Compromise of 1850. What demands did such laws make?
To see a recovered steamboat in the Christina’s time, see www.1856.com for the steamboat Arabia at Kansas City, Missouri.
Let’s Think About … Possible field trips
The George M. Verity Riverboat Museum, Keokuk, Iowa
www.geomverity.org Wonderful photos of various areas in a genuine steamboat along the Mississippi River.
Steamboat Arabia Museum, Kansas City, Missouri.
www.1856.com See a steamboat and artifacts resurrected and restored from a wreck in the Missouri River.
National Mississippi Riverboat Museum and Aquarium, Dubuque, Iowa
www.mississippirivermuseum.com Large complex at Tricity hub along the Mississippi River.
Because of the time lapse between my visiting a place for research and your possible trip please check these sites online and/or by phone for more information before traveling there.
Let’s Talk About … Your own writing
Talk and write about how these laws affected runaway slaves in different areas. How did these laws also affect the people who wanted to help runaway slaves?
What did Captain Norstad mean when he said that a fugitive slave law passed in 1850 was a bad law? (ch. 11)
Think about an area of the Underground Railroad that especially interests you. What would you like to learn more about? Research this important movement and report what you find.
Jordan escaped once … but will he need to escape again? What will the Freedom Seekers do about it?
Thanks for being my friends through books. I’ll meet you in the next Freedom Seekers novel … Race for Life!
A Few Words for Educators
Dear Parents and Educators,
The six novels in The Freedom Seekers series offer an excellent way to gain a national view of the political climate in 1857. In that critical period in American history, steamboats carried immigrants to newly opened land. Rivers were the highways of the time and the mighty Mississippi was a well-traveled route. In spite of danger, injustice, and the possible loss of all they had, people of many faiths, rich and poor, slave or free, worked together for what they believed about the rights and freedom of individuals. In life-or-death situations children, teens, and adults built the Underground Railroad.
As I returned to this series to write study guides I was struck by the similarities between then and now. Though we are a vital part of the electronic age with its countless breakthroughs, some things have not changed—the need to value and uphold our American freedoms. The need to cherish human life. The need to stand for what we believe. Even as we had overcomers then, we have Freedom Seekers now.
The Freedom Seekers series also offers tools for teaching topics that help our growth as individuals. Libby, Captain Norstad, Caleb, Jordan, and their friends face questions still crucial today:
Who can I trust?
What do I really care about?
What does it mean to be a never-give-up family?
How can I live out my belief in the freedoms sought in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights?
In what ways do I need to recognize the Lord’s leading in both daily and life-or-death situations?
What practical skills should I develop?
Why do I need to put my faith in God?
How can I live with biblical principles and values?
How can I make choices based on those principles and values?
And how can I encourage others to do the same?
The Freedom Seekers series weaves together fictional characters with carefully researched people who lived or were known in 1857. Each novel stands alone but is best read in sequence to see the growth of characters and relationships. A new character, Peter, who is deaf, joins the Christina family in the fourth book.
Prepare students for reading a novel by talking about the cover. Who are the characters? What do you think they’re doing? Where are they? How do they feel about what’s happening? Then encourage your students to just enjoy reading the story. If needed, they can take random notes to help them find details for later use, but ask them to wait with answering questions or doing activities. After reading a book through, students can return to it and glean added information to answer study questions or do other activities.
Each study guide gives you the ability to move through the questions and activities at a pace that is right for your students. Topics are organized in sections such as talking about the story, making choices, being a never-give-up family, following God’s leading, discussing ideas about freedom, ideas for written or oral responses, and a digging deeper section for students who want to study further.
Your own love of reading may be one of your strongest motivators for encouraging others to read. That love and the discernment that follows will become an important gift you offer the children and young people you influence.
Whether you read these novels aloud as a group or your students read them individually, I hope that all of you enjoy them. May each of you also be blessed by growing deeper in your walk as a Freedom Seeker.
With warm regards,
Lois Walfrid Johnson
List of Characters
LIBBY NORSTAD: Tall and slender, 13 years old. Turns 14 in book #4. Just one inch shorter than Caleb who is not short. Brown eyes like her mother’s, long, deep red hair with gold highlights. At beginning of first novel wears in long curls. Before time of second cover, she brushed it out with front drawn up and held by ribbon at top of head and rest of hair with slight curls at end falling down her back. Hair is wispy in front, wavy in back. First book wears full dresses and crinolines. Changes to simpler dress partway through book. Spiritually doesn’t know what she believes until near the end of second book. Wants a never-give-up family. Libby’s mother died 4 years before.
CAPTAIN NATHANIEL NORSTAD, LIBBY’S FATHER, PA: Captain and owner of the Christina. Tall, slender, brown eyes, black hair with a touch of white above the ears. Athletic movements, strong Christian, stands firm on what he believes, runs a tight ship, homeschools Libby and Caleb, then Jordan and Elsa. Norwegian. When his first wife, Christina, died, Libby was 9.
CALEB WHITNEY: Biblically, he stood in the right place, took the hill country even when an old man. 14 years old, almost 15. Blue eyes, blond hair falls down over his forehead, slender, but not as tall as Jordan. One inch taller than Libby. Cabin boy on Christina. Underground Railroad conductor since age of 9. Ardent abo
litionist, wants to be a newspaper editor, strong Christian.
RACHEL (GRANNY OR GRAN) WHITNEY: Caleb’s grandmother who has cared for him since the death of his parents from cholera. Gran is a widow and the chief pastry cook on board. Strongly antislavery, Caleb’s sidekick when it comes to hiding people and she does hide them in the ship’s galley when needed. Also supplies food for the hidden fugitives. Spunky, small, gray-white hair that falls out of the bun at the back of her neck. Rosy, flushed cheeks when galley hot from cooking.
JORDAN PARKER: African American, Black, doesn’t know his birthday, about 15 or 16. Wants his birthday to be when he knows his daddy is free. Sold at estate auction in St. Louis. Muscular, strong, about 6 feet tall. Strong Christian walk, forgiving spirit, hears the Lord extraordinarily well. Singer. Good mechanic.
Father: Micah Parker
Mother: Hattie
11-year-old sister: Serena
8-year-old brother: Zack
3-year-old sister: Rose
EMMA: slave at same location in Missouri as Jordan’s family, then sold farther north, along with Jordan’s Momma, his brother, and two sisters. Emma’s baby’s name is Little Henry (rescued by Deacon Trowbridge).
AUNTIE VI THORNTON: Sister of Libby’s mother, took care of Libby for four years until Libby came to live with her father. Vi lives in a mansion in Chicago.
UNCLE ALEXANDER THORNTON: Husband of Vi. Wealthy businessman.
MR. BATES: First mate, Southern sympathizer. Presses thin lips together. Thin. Almost as tall as Libby’s father.
OSBORNE: Chief engineer, kind, welcoming, abolitionist
FLETCHER: Christina’s pilot
MARTIN: young mud clerk
MR. RIGGS: Cruel slave trader, short in height, slender around waist, wiry, wears three-piece suit that finest money can buy, carries cane with gold head that is not needed for walking. Cold blue eyes. Cruelest man Libby has ever seen. Lines between nose and outside corners of lips as though always frowning. Robert Ralph Riggs.
SLAVE CATCHERS: No name given. One blond, other light brown hair. Both tall.
HISTORIC CHARACTERS:
HARRIET TUBMAN: Moses to her people.
DR. and MRS. WILLIAM SALTER, Congregational pastor and wife in Burlington, IA.
HENDERSON LEWELLING, Amos and Ellen Kimberly and their son, Samuel: Society of Friends, owners of house in Salem, IA.
REVEREND ASA TURNER, along with Dr. Salter, part of Iowa Band that settled in southeaster corner of Iowa.
DEACON and MRS. THERON TROWBRIDGE, sheltered fugitives in their home, Deacon rescued Emma’s baby.
ELIJAH LOVEJOY: First martyr for freedom of press in U. S. Killed while editor of newspaper, the Observer, in Alton, IL. Took antislavery stands.
ALL BOATS NAMED ARE HISTORIC
except for the Christina.
CHRISTINA: Name of the sidewheeler owned and operated by Libby’s father. Steamboat is named after Libby’s mother.
SAMSON: Libby’s dog, a Newfoundland, better known today as a Newfie. Housebroken, but frisky when Libby gets him. Black coat with white patches on nose, muzzle, chest and tips of toes.
Acknowledgments
Often people ask me, “Lois, how can I tell who is real, and who isn’t?” By that they mean, “What characters truly lived? Which characters are imaginary?” If you wonder the same thing, turn to page 6. You’ll find a paragraph naming the real-life people who lived or were known during the time of this series. With each historic person I did my best to describe them as they were and according to what they did and said.
Take, for instance, Father Asa Turner, pastor of the first Congregational church in Iowa. When he saw the need for more churches, he wrote to Andover Seminary in Massachusetts and asked students to consider coming to the Iowa Territory. In response several young men gathered in the library at night, meeting in the dark to avoid the risk of fire, and praying about what they should do.
Pastor William Salter, later known as Dr. Salter, was one of those who became part of the Iowa Band. Both Father Turner and Dr. Salter provided strong spiritual and antislavery leadership during crucial years of Iowa’s history.
A member of Father Turner’s church, Deacon Trowbrige truly did rescue a baby from a slave owner in northeastern Missouri. The Trowbridge house still stands in Denmark, Iowa, as a private residence. I’m grateful to Gayla Young and her daughter Stacy for showing me the secret room discovered by Gayla’s grandparents, Robert and Ethel Riddle.
The Quaker community of Salem, Iowa, was a major center for the work of the Underground Railroad. Ten routes led in or out of the town. Henderson Lewelling, who built the house where the Kimberly family lived during this story, was a nurseryman who transported about 700 trees and shrubs by oxcart to Milwaukie, Oregon. There he became known as the father of the West Coast fruit industry. His brother, Seth, developed the Bing cherry.
Henderson Lewelling’s home in Salem is now a museum that honors the important stand taken by members of the Society of Friends in that area. Thanks to Marcia Cammack for giving us a great tour!
And what about Elijah Lovejoy, the newspaper editor admired by Caleb? Today Mr. Lovejoy is known as the first martyr for freedom of the press in the United States. If you visit the city of Alton, Illinois, you’ll find a monument to this courageous man.
The building now known as the Old Courthouse in Saint Louis has had a long and painful history. From a courtroom within those walls, Dred Scott made his first attempts to free himself from slavery.
For many years slave auctions were held on the east steps of the Old Courthouse. Then on January 1, 1861, two thousand young men gathered for the widely advertised sale of seven slaves. When the auctioneer asked for bids on the first slave, the audience roared “Three dollars!” After two hours the bidding reached eight dollars. The exhausted auctioneer finally led the slaves back to jail. Never again did someone try to sell human beings in a St. Louis auction.
In September, 1991, African Americans and whites marched side by side to the steps of the Old Courthouse. Standing in the rain, white leaders asked forgiveness for past and present sins against African Americans. Black Christians spoke out their forgiveness.
In addition to those already named, a number of other people have helped in the preparation of this book. In Denmark, Iowa, thanks to David and Peg O’Rourke, Leontina Raid, and Carol Whitmarsh.
In Alton, Illinois, thanks to Janice Wright of the visitors center; the librarians of the Hayner Public Library District; Charlene Gill, president, and Shirley Dury of the Alton Area Historical Society.
Roberta and Hurley Hagood of Hannibal, Missouri, shared generously of their time and research. My gratitude also to Susie Guest, library assistant, Burlington Free Public Library; William S. Trump Jr., pastor, and Anna Martin, historian, First Congregational Church, Burlington, Iowa; Neal Dodd and historian John Haufman of Fort Madison, Iowa; H. Scott Wolfe, historical librarian, Galena Public Library District, Galena, Illinois; Phyllis Kelley, DeKalb County historian, Sycamore, Illinois; Harry Alsman, LeClaire, Iowa; and Joseph W. Sutter, editor, S & D Reflector.
Emily Miller, librarian at the Missouri Historical Society Library and Collections Center, St. Louis; Barbara Kolk of the American Kennel Club Association Library, New York; Anita Taylor Doering, archivist, La Crosse Public Library; and Ed Hill, Archivist, Special Collections, Murphy Library, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, all gave prompt answers to my many questions.
Through the Steamer George M. Verity and the Keokuk River Museum at Victory Park in Keokuk, Iowa, I began to feel what it means to live on a riverboat. Robert L. Miller, curator of this National Historic Landmark, also gave of his personal knowledge and resources, helped me in countless ways, and read portions of the manuscript. A thousand thanks, Bob!
In addition to providing information, four other people also read parts of the manuscript and offered suggestions: Linda Slaikeu, Cushing, Wisconsin; Lewis Savage, Quaker pastor, Salem, Iowa; Thomas Robinson, president, Minnesota
Valley Kennel Club; and Norma Robinson, president, Newfoundland Dog Club of the Greater Twin Cities, Eagan, Minnesota.
My gratitude, also, to Gene Early, Birdella Johnson, Bill Soderbeck, and Walter Johnson of Frederic, Grantsburg, and Siren, Wisconsin, and to Jena and Randy Luck of Dayton, Ohio, for help with the story line.
Sincere thanks to Bethany House for the first edition of this book and my editors Ron Klug, Barbara Lilland, and Helen Motter for their wisdom and help in developing ideas. Thanks to my artist, Andrea Jorgenson, who made Libby and the other characters come to life.
Thank you to every person at Moody Publishers who had a part in bringing out this new edition of the Freedom Seekers series: Deborah Keiser, Associate Publisher—River North, for her strong gifting, creative planning, and visionary leadership. My thanks, also, to Michele Forridor, Audience Development Manager, for day-to-day marketing and making connections with you, my audience; to Brittany Biggs, Author Relations; and to Pam Pugh, General Project Editor, for her oversight, management, and working through the details to bring this book to completion. Thanks also to Artist Odessa Sawyer for giving us exciting art that keeps us asking, “What will happen next?”
Finally, I’m grateful to my husband, Roy. After writing a number of Northwoods novels, I asked him, “What can we do next?” When you read the student intro to the study guide you’ll discover the result. Thanks, Roy, for being my terrific idea person. Thanks for the countless times you’ve encouraged me. And thanks for all the fun we had traveling up and down the Mississippi River while searching out the Underground Railroad.
Other Titles by Lois Walfrid Johnson
The Freedom Seekers
1. Escape into the Night
2. Race for Freedom
3. Midnight Rescue
4. The Swindler’s Treasure
5. Mysterious Signal
6. The Fiddler’s Secret
Adventures of the Northwoods
1. The Disappearing Stranger
2. The Hidden Message
3. The Creeping Shadows
4. The Vanishing Footprints
5. Trouble at Wild River
6. The Mysterious Hideaway