A Picture of Freedom by Patricia C. McKissack

Author:Patricia C. McKissack [McKissack, Patricia C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-545-41497-5
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 1997-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

Wednesday, October 5, 1859

Mas’ Henley pitched a red-in-the-face fit ’bout Eva Mae’s fried chicken. He called it tasteless slop! Serves him right.

Thursday, October 6, 1859

Tonight Spicy took me by the hand and led me to a hollowed out tree. My heart sank when I realized that it was the tree where my diary was hid. Had she found my diary? All of a sudden, Spicy blurted out that she had a book. To prove it, she reached in and pulled out a Bible. My diary was just inches away. “I’ve wanted to tell you this forever, but I been scared,” she said.

Spicy had a Bible that had been her mama’s. “My mama could read and write,” said Spicy. Then she told me her mama’s story. It was like others I’d heard. Spicy’s mama tried to run away, but each time she got caught and beat bad. Finally her mas’er say if she ran away she was gon’ get sold. Spicy’s mama learned how to write — took her a while. Spicy was borned and still she kept learning. Then one day, she wrote herself a pass and tried to run again. But a slave who worked in the Big House told the mistress and she got caught. Before they sent Spicy’s mama to the Deep South, she slipped Spicy the Bible.

“I done kept it all these years,” Spicy said. “I cain’t read a word that’s in it, not yet. One day I will. But even if I don’t ever read, I’ll keep this Bible forever. It is all I have that b’longed to my mama.”

Spicy hugged the book to her chest. “Nobody in the world knows about this book ’cept’n you. And I trust you won’t tell, ’cause we’re good friends.”

Should I share my secret with Spicy? Good sense tells me that I shouldn’t. But I want to so, so bad.

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