In small numbers, while slavery held sway in the southern states, and in large numbers, in the early to mid-twentieth century, African Americans headed north. Today’s pairing explores these journeys:
Before She Was Harriet
Author: Lesa Cline-Ransome
Illustrator: James E. Ransome
Publisher/Date: Holiday House Publishing, Inc./2017
Ages: 4-8
Themes: biography, African-American history, women’s history, slavery, underground railroad
Short Synopsis (from Goodreads):
A lush and lyrical biography of Harriet Tubman, written in verse and illustrated by an award-winning artist.
We know her today as Harriet Tubman, but in her lifetime she was called by many names. As General Tubman she was a Union spy. As Moses she led hundreds to freedom on the Underground Railroad. As Minty she was a slave whose spirit could not be broken. An evocative poem and opulent watercolors come together to honor a woman of humble origins whose courage and compassion make her larger than life.
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Read a review at Kirkus Reviews.
Overground Railroad
Author: Lesa Cline-Ransome
Illustrator: James E. Ransome
Publisher/Date: Holiday House/2020
Ages: 4-8
Themes: African-American history, the Great Migration, moving, train journey
Short Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Ruth Ellen’s odyssey on the New York Bound Silver Meteor is the start of a new life up North that she can’t begin to imagine in this gorgeously illustrated picture book.
In poems, illustrated with collage art, a perceptive girl tells the story of her train journey from North Carolina to New York City as part of the Great Migration. Each leg of the trip brings new revelations as scenes out the window of folks working in fields give way to the Delaware River, the curtain that separates the colored car is removed, and glimpses of the freedom and opportunity the family hopes to find come into view.
Overground Railroad offers a window into a child’s experience of the Great Migration from the award-winning creators behind Finding Langston, Before She was Harriet, Benny Goodman & Teddy Wilson, and Just a Lucky So and So.
Read my review.
I paired these books because they recount two eras of black migration from the south to northern states. In Before She Was Harriet, Cline-Ransome recounts the life of the most famous of the underground railroad conductors, Harriet Tubman. In Overground Railroad, Cline-Ransome recounts the fictional story of a young girl and her family who flee the poverty and segregation of the 20th century south to find a better life in the north. Reading these books together shows how these journeys were similar quests to find freedom, from the bondage of slavery and the bondage of the sharecropping system, poverty, and segregation.
Wander, Ponder, Write 