Moses: When
Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford
Weatherford,
C.B. (2006). Moses: When Harriet Tubman
Led Her People to Freedom. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children.
Multicultural
Literature; Nonfiction Biography or Historical Fiction; Caldecott Honor Award; Coretta Scott
King Award
Harriet Tubman was the true Moses during the slavery days in America, leading her people to freedom in the northern part of the country. Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom tells Harriet's heroic adventure of the Underground Railroad through a spiritual themed story. Throughout the book it is said that God is speaking to Harriet as she makes her decisions and takes her dangerous actions to help set her people free. The inside of the book even gives a short biography about Harriet and her brave achievements. It worries me a little to read this book in a public classroom with the strong religious references throughout the book, however it is fine to do so as long as the religious references and preferences are not pushed upon the children for them to believe. I would mainly focus on the reference to history with talk about slavery, the Underground Railroad, and abolitionists. I would also like to bring in the culture of African Americans, talking about the hymns that were sung by the slaves, the connection of those hymns to the secret codes of escaping, and how they are sung in African American churches in today's world. This book would connect nicely to the book about Abraham Lincoln (When Abraham Talked to the Trees) with his issue of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the talk about Civil Rights later in the unit, involving segregation and discrimination represented in the book The Golden Cadillac. I would not only stop at talking about Harriet Tubman, but also other famous slaves such as Nat Turner and Frederick Douglass.
Harriet Tubman was the true Moses during the slavery days in America, leading her people to freedom in the northern part of the country. Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom tells Harriet's heroic adventure of the Underground Railroad through a spiritual themed story. Throughout the book it is said that God is speaking to Harriet as she makes her decisions and takes her dangerous actions to help set her people free. The inside of the book even gives a short biography about Harriet and her brave achievements. It worries me a little to read this book in a public classroom with the strong religious references throughout the book, however it is fine to do so as long as the religious references and preferences are not pushed upon the children for them to believe. I would mainly focus on the reference to history with talk about slavery, the Underground Railroad, and abolitionists. I would also like to bring in the culture of African Americans, talking about the hymns that were sung by the slaves, the connection of those hymns to the secret codes of escaping, and how they are sung in African American churches in today's world. This book would connect nicely to the book about Abraham Lincoln (When Abraham Talked to the Trees) with his issue of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the talk about Civil Rights later in the unit, involving segregation and discrimination represented in the book The Golden Cadillac. I would not only stop at talking about Harriet Tubman, but also other famous slaves such as Nat Turner and Frederick Douglass.
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