LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

As Abraham Lincoln's birthday was on February 12, let's look at a new book celebrating his most famous speech, The Gettysburg Address.

President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address 150 years ago, in late 1863; the text of that speech formed the basis for this picture book from James Daugherty, a Newbery-winning illustrator, which was first published in 1947.

The book opens with Daugherty’s original foreword, as well as the address in its entirety, before moving on to 15 paintings that depict

 muscled pioneers settling the American West, the bloody toll of the Civil War, and events well beyond Lincoln’s time, up through WWII.

The images have the heroic feel of WPA posters, as people from all backgrounds and ethnicities join together to embrace the hope and promise embodied in Lincoln’s speech. An afterword by Civil War scholar Gabor Boritt is new to this edition, as are brief guides to each painting.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Only a few presidential quotes or speeches have outlasted the test of time, and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is probably the most famous and most significant.

Originally published in 1947, this pictorial version has been updated with a new afterword by Gabor Boritt, a Civil War scholar, in time for the 150th anniversary of the speech. The original illustrations by Daugherty are brightly hued and hewn and dramatize the 15 sentences of Lincoln’s speech with great vigor in a style evocative of Depression-era WPA murals.

 In another picture-book depiction, Michael McCurdy’s black-and-white engravings (1995) contrast sharply and are forcefully composed, alternating between the action of battle and the quiet artifacts left behind. 

Daugherty’s heroic tableaux attack the emotions with highly symbolic imagery. “A new nation conceived in liberty” depicts two men, black and white, raising a flag while another white man unshackles a beaten, scarred slave; on the right, a woman, her children and her frontiersman husband look on; above all, a bald eagle flies into the sun. 

It is my hope some of you will take a look at this worthy book for children.  President Lincoln has long been a role model for people of all ages and of many nationalities as well.

Contraband Slaves at Fort Monroe the Focus of New Children's Book, Under the Freedom Tree

A new children's book, Under the Freedom Tree, addresses an overlooked aspect of Civil War history, the contraband slaves who risked their lives to seek protection behind Union lines.  They labored for the Union cause, and launched the beginning of slavery's end. Written by Susan VanHecke and illustrated by London Ladd, Under the Freedom Tree will be issued in February 1, 2014 by Charlesbridge  Publishers.

Emancipation Oak

On the night of May 23, 1861, three slaves held by Confederate forces constructing artillery emplacements in what is now Norfolk, Virginia escaped, stole a skiff, and rowed across the harbor of Hampton Roads to the Union-held Fortress Monroe. It was a bold and courageous act; the men risked brutal, even fatal, punishment for the hope they saw on the other side.

Had they escaped days earlier, they would have been returned under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. But Virginia had just seceded and was no longer a part of the United States. Thus the Union commander at Fortress Monroe, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, declared the slaves enemy "contraband" and refused to return them to the Confederates.

 
As word spread, hundreds and, ultimately, thousands of runaway slaves made their way to the refuge of Fortress Monroe. While technically the fugitives were not free, “contraband” was preferable to “slave” and a step closer to freedom. The contrabands labored for the Union forces and lived in camps they built themselves just outside Fortress Monroe in Hampton, Virginia.

Virginia Hall
Hampton University

There, under the shade of an enormous live oak tree, slave children learned to read and write, taught by Mary Smith Peake, a local free black woman working with the American Missionary Association. The open-air education defied longstanding laws against teaching slaves or free blacks to read or write. These classes are considered the first at what is now Hampton University.

In 1863, under that same tree, the Emancipation Proclamation was read to the area's black community, guaranteeing their eventual freedom. Some historians believe it to be the first reading in the South of the proclamation. The tree, which still stands on the Hampton University campus, is now known as the Emancipation Oak.

Susan VanHecke of Norfolk, Virginia, is an author of fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. Her books for young readers include Raggin' Jazzin' Rockin': A History of American Musical Instrument Makers (Boyds Mills, 2011), a 2012 American Library Association Notable Children's Book; An Apple Pie for Dinner (Marshall Cavendish, 2009); and Rock 'N' Roll Soldier (HarperCollins, 2009), with Dean Ellis Kohler, foreword by Graham Nash.