Posted on by TracyC

The Ninth Jewel of the Mughal Crown

BirbalTales

The Ninth Jewel of the Mughal Crown: The Birbal Tales by James Moseley, 2001.

BirbalTalesRealBirbalThe characters in the stories, Emperor Akbar and his friend and advisor Birbal (birth name Mahesh Das) were real people who lived in India during the late 16th century. Over the years, stories and legends have grown up around them, although the truth is pretty incredible by itself.

This book, which is a collection of some of the stories about Akbar and Birbal, begins by explaining a little about their history, and there is another section in the back that explains more about their lives.  The book’s introduction says that Akbar’s father died when he was young and that Akbar’s reign was considered a Golden Age in India’s history, although it mostly focuses on his “Nine Jewels.”  The section in the back gives a little more context.

To begin with, Akbar was one of the Mughal Emperors.  The book doesn’t explain much about what that means, but understanding it helps to set the stage for the stories.  The Mughal Empire consisted not only of modern day India but also some of the surrounding countries.  The empire was first established by Akbar’s grandfather, Babur, through conquest.  Babur was born in the region that we now call Uzbekistan, although his family’s origins were Mongolian.  They were distantly descended from Genghis Khan.  They were also descended from Tamir (sometimes called Tamerlane), giving them Turkic and Persian connections.  The early years of the Mughal Empire were unstable, but when Akbar’s father died and Akbar became emperor at a young age, his regent helped him to stabilize the empire and expand it through a mixture of further conquest and diplomacy.  The reputation of wealth and power in the Mughal Empire eventually led to the adoption of the word “mogul” in English to describe a wealthy and powerful person, especially one who has high standing in a particular field of expertise (something which, as you’ll see, was of particular importance to Akbar).  Using the riches and resources gained through his territorial expansion, Akbar worked to develop the economy of his empire and to support the arts and learning.

BirbalTalesRealAkbarAkbar had a great love of learning, but unfortunately, was dyslexic at a time when people didn’t understand the condition very well.  (To put it into context, Akbar was a contemporary of Elizabeth I of England.)  Even though, like the European Emperor Charlemagne (who lived much earlier but was also apparently dyslexic), he wanted to learn to read, he struggled with it throughout his life because of his condition.  Akbar didn’t want his reading difficulties to interfere with his learning or his love of the arts, so he found another way around the problem.  In a way, it’s similar to what Charlemagne did, surrounding himself with learned advisors who would read to him and discuss important topics with him, verbally teaching him whatever he wanted to know.  Akbar chose his advisors very carefully, seeking out people who had demonstrated excellence in subjects that were important to him. Akbar’s advisors became famous for their fascinating and unusual skills and personalities.  He had nine special advisors who were close to him, which is why they were called, “The Nine Jewels of the Mughal Crown.”  Legends grew up around these men and their abilities:

Tansen – An expert in music, whose singing voice was said to be so amazing that he could make candles burst into flame with a song.

Daswant – A master painter.

Todar Mal – An expert in finance.

Abul Fazl – A great historian.

Faizi – Brother of Abul Fazl, a famous poet.

Abud us-Samad – A master at calligraphy, he also designed the imperial coins.

Man Singh – A great military general.

Mir Fathullah Shirazi – A man of many skills, including the fields of medicine, astronomy, philosophy, and finances.

Birbal – Akbar’s Minister or Raja, who had a reputation for cleverness, quick wit, and the service of justice.  He was the “Ninth Jewel”, and his stories are the focus of this book.

BirbalTalesMeetingThere are many more stories about Birbal than the ones included in this book, but they are all about how Birbal uses his wits to serve Akbar and aid the cause of justice.  Like all good legends, the stories are partly based in fact, but have grown with each retelling to the point where it can be difficult to say where the real people leave off and the legends begin.

In the first story in the book, Akbar meets Birbal when he is still a child.  Fascinated by the boy’s combination of courtesy and boldness and his unusual wit, he gives the boy a ring and tells him that when he is grown, he should come to his palace at Fatehpur Sikri.  Years later, Birbal does go there, but when he shows the ring with the emperor’s seal on it to the guard on duty, the guard refuses to let him in until he promises to give him half of whatever the emperor gives him.  When Akbar sees Birbal, he is pleased to meet him again but stunned when Birbal asks him to give him 100 lashes.  When Birbal explains the reason for his bizarre request, it not only gets the laughter of the court, but the approval of Akbar, who appreciates this bold approach to the problem of bribery.

BirbalTalesPortraitFrom then on, Birbal gains a reputation for his ability to mediate disputes and find unusual solutions to problems.  His favored position at court gives him some jealous enemies, but he handles them with the same cleverness that he uses to solve every problem.

In one of my favorite stories, one of the noblemen at court attempts to cheat Daswant out of his rightful fee for painting his portrait by changing his appearance (shaving his beard, shaving his mustache, etc.) after each portrait sitting and then claiming that the portraits Daswant paints do not really look like him.  When Daswant explains the situation to Birbal, he gets the nobleman to promise to pay for an “exact likeness” of himself in the presence of Akbar.  Then, Birbal shows him a mirror, which Akbar agrees contains an exact likeness of the nobleman and deserves payment.

BirbalTalesCoinPurseIn another of my favorite stories, Birbal determines who is the true owner of a coin purse when a flour merchant and an oil merchant each claim that it belongs to them.  He pours the coins into a pot of boiling water and notes the oil that bubbles to the surface.  Because the coins are covered in oil, they obviously belong to the oil merchant.  If they had belonged to the flour merchant, they would have been covered in flour.

One of the interesting aspects of Akbar’s friendship with Birbal was their religious differences.  Akbar, like the rest of his family, was Muslim, and Birbal was from a family of Hindu Brahmins. The Mughal Empire was a multi-cultural society, and Akbar was aware of it.   At one point, he attempted to develop a new religious movement that combined aspects of Islam and Hinduism in order to further unite his subjects, but it never caught on as a mainstream religion, possibly because Akbar’s own strong personality as its leader was one of the most attractive features.  Akbar did seem to genuinely believe in religious tolerance and promoted widespread education among his subjects.

Birbal, the historical person, was eventually killed in battle, and Akbar greatly mourned his loss.  The Mughal Empire continued for generations beyond Akbar, although it eventually collapsed through a combination of military, administrative, and economic decline; the decentralization of power in the empire; internal discord; and interference from outsiders that paved the way for the British colonization of India.  That’s kind of a simplistic description of a long, complicated period of history, but the end of the Mughal Empire was marked by the beginning of British rule in India.  In 1858, the British East India Company deposed the last of the Mughal emperors, sending him into exile, around 300 years after the reign of Akbar began.

Posted on by TracyC

Kathleen: The Celtic Knot

KathleenKathleen: The Celtic Knot by Siobhan Parkinson, 2003.

Twelve-year-old Kathleen lives with her family in Dublin, Ireland in 1937. Like the rest of the world, Ireland is suffering under the Great Depression, and Kathleen’s father has been having trouble finding work. Her mother helps to support the family by working as a midwife.

One day, when Kathleen’s mother is off delivering a baby, Kathleen accidentally burns the porridge at breakfast, making her and her sisters late for school. Although they should have been marked as being on time, they are considered one minute late because the nun’s watch was fast. Discipline is harsh at the Catholic school they attend, and after a harsh lecture to Kathleen, the headmistress, Mother Rosario, calls for a conference with her mother. Kathleen is very upset about it, but Mother Rosario softens somewhat and says that she merely wants to see that everything is alright with Kathleen’s family because a nice girl like her shouldn’t be acting up.  Kathleen still worries because she knows that the nuns look down on poor families like theirs and consider their authority higher than the parents of the children they teach.  They are often unaware of the circumstances that families live in.

However, Kathleen’s mother isn’t fazed by the nuns’ attitude and is blunt with the Mother Rosario, telling it like it is. The headmistress does show that she has some compassion and is somewhat aware of their circumstances because she says that Kathleen’s lateness was only part of the reason she wanted this meeting. She has guessed that Kathleen’s father is looking for work, and there is a position for an assistant gardener open at the school. It doesn’t pay much, and it’s not as good as her father’s old job was before the factory where he worked closed, but he agrees to take it because it’s better than nothing.

The headmistress also says that she has noticed that Kathleen is musically-talented. She likes to sing and has a good voice. Mother Rosario thinks it would be a good idea for her to take piano or dance lessons. The family doesn’t have a piano, so the headmistress suggest that Kathleen join the Irish dancing lessons because it’s a wholesome activity that reflects her heritage and that would keep her out of trouble. Kathleen’s mother isn’t big on heritage, but she agrees that dancing might be a good activity for Kathleen.

Kathleen isn’t happy about the dance lessons at first because the other girls who are involved are snobs. But, once she tries it, she realizes that she actually loves dancing. The problem is that the lessons aren’t free, like the other girls told her. At first, Kathleen feels cheated, finding out that she loves something that she can’t have after all, but her teacher says that she’s talented, so she offers Kathleen some free lessons anyway. She’s been looking for new talent so that her dancers can do well in the next dancing competition, and she doesn’t want to let a promising dancer like Kathleen slip through her fingers.

The snobby girls in class are all the more irritated when Kathleen is among those chosen to enter the next competition, but everyone also knows that there is one more obstacle for Kathleen: she doesn’t have a proper dancing costume or any money to buy one. She prays for one, even promising God that she’d become a nun if he gives her the costume she wants. Her mother has her eye on some beautiful cloth that she hopes to buy as a remnant, but the cloth gets snapped up by some of the wealthier, snobby girls, and her mother comes down with a serious illness shortly before the competition.

Kathleen begins to think that she was wicked for being so concerned about dancing and costumes when there are much more serious things in life. However, her aunt, Polly, understands how she feels and comes up with a plan to make the needed costume for Kathleen, using her favorite book, Gone With the Wind, as inspiration. Remember what Scarlett O’Hara did when she needed a new dress and couldn’t afford one?

KathleenDancing

One of the themes that runs through the story is questions and answers. Kathleen has a lot of questions about life. She knows that her mother deliveries babies for money, but she doesn’t really understand much about it, and her mother doesn’t answer the questions she asks. In fact, Kathleen notices that most of the adults she knows (with the exception of her father) brush aside her questions about the way the way the world works or the things people do because they simply don’t want to be bothered with them. They have too many concerns of their own, and they don’t really know most of the answers themselves. It kind of contrasts with the answers that Mother Rosario demands from Kathleen and immediately dismisses upon getting. Most of the time, she doesn’t really want to bother with answering questions or even dealing with the answers to questions she’s just asked. Only once does she answer a question that Kathleen had asked about St. Patrick, and Kathleen is astonished at getting an answer about something.

I have to admit that the attitudes about questions and answers from most of the adults in the story really irritated me, especially the way Mother Rosario demanded answers from Kathleen about her lateness and then dismissed everything that Kathleen said, angry that she had “answers.”  I’ve met people like that before in real life, and they’re just as illogical and crazy-making as this headmistress. I’m not talking about teachers who refuse to listen to flimsy excuses like “the dog ate my homework,” but people who get angry at others who have real explanations just because they have real explanations. People who demand to know the reasons why things happen and then immediately reject any explanation offered without a real reason for doing so are obnoxious. I’ve encountered people like that before, and it’s hard to have anything resembling a meaningful conversation with them.   They don’t want to talk to you; they just want to yell or lecture at you.  They don’t really care what the answers or explanations are for anything, and no answer would make any difference to them because what they really want is for the other person to just feel bad. It’s an unethical one-upmanship tactic, and it loses my respect the moment I hear someone use it because I recognize what they’re attempting to do. It’s so obvious, but frustrating at the same time (Kathleen in the story wonders why Mother Rosario is trying to torture her in this way) because there’s nothing you can say to stop the other person once they start (at least, I haven’t figured it out). Kathleen’s approach was probably the most effective.  She just stopped talking and prepared herself for the headmistress to hit her, which caused the headmistress to wake up a bit to the fact that the message that she was sending to Kathleen was that her only intentions were to hurt her.  Fortunately, those were not her only intentions, but I have to admit that I never really had any respect for Mother Rosario after that, in spite of what she did to help Kathleen’s family.  You can tell this is one of my pet peeves.  One-upmanship really bothers me in all of its forms, and I have even less time for that kind of nonsense than these characters do for answering a twelve-year-old’s questions.  At least you can talk to a twelve-year-old. Getting back to that, part of Kathleen’s trouble with some of her questions is that her elders often underestimate her, thinking that she’s really too young to understand anything, but the fact that she’s asking questions says that she’s really not. In fact, she might even be putting more thought into some issues than the people who have decided that some things aren’t worth thinking about in the first place.

Another theme of the story is growing up and changing goals in life. By discovering her talent as a dancer, Kathleen has found something that she would like to dedicate her life to, and if she becomes a dance teacher herself, it would give her a job to do in her future that could make her life better. Her aunt, Polly, who is twenty years old, also changes her mind about what she wants in life. As a single young woman, she likes to go out and have fun with her small earnings, hoping to meet a man as elegant as Rhett Butler.   However, when her latest young man turns out to be a cad, she accepts a proposal from the very shy but much nicer young man who she had previous thought wasn’t handsome enough. Polly’s experiences make her realize that handsomeness by itself isn’t much, and she and her new husband have plans for building a life together. At first, Kathleen is disappointed because she and Polly had talked about leading a carefree life together as single ladies when Kathleen was grown, but Polly explains to her that things will be better this way and that grown-ups have to build real lives for themselves, not live on dreams alone. Kathleen is still in the process of discovering the possibilities that life might hold for her and the talents that she can use to build her life.

I also found the parts about Irish history and politics during 1930s interesting.  One of the reasons why Kathleen’s family isn’t big on the Irish heritage movement is because her grandfather fought during World War I and wasn’t treated well as a veteran when he returned. During the meeting with Mother Rosario, Kathleen’s mother is blunt about her views on things, and Mother Rosario is surprised how much she understands of politics, showing that she looks down on poor people (possibly the source of her general rudeness and bullying tactics, even when she’s trying to be helpful – she’s decided that she’s superior and will remain so, whether she’s right or wrong), thinking that they aren’t smart enough to understand what’s going on around them.  The story makes it clear that the nuns at school are often out of touch with what ordinary families go through in their daily lives.  They underestimate what people know or read about, they have trouble understanding their daily struggles with money and how they are barely able to keep food on the table, and they seem unable to grasp what it’s like to be part of a family where any family member’s actions can affect all of the others.  For me, they were far more aggravating than the snobby little girl characters because I usually expect adults of a certain age to have grown out of some of these behaviors.

While reading the story, I was kind of comparing Kathleen’s circumstances in Ireland in the 1930s to life in America during the Great Depression, and many of their struggles were the same.  I was also kind of fascinated by Polly’s fascination with Gone With the Wind because it shows how pieces of culture and entertainment could become popular in other countries during this time.

This book is part of a series by the same publishers of the American Girls Books.  There is a section in the back of the book with historical information about the period.

KathleenHistorical

Posted on by TracyC

Changes for Addy

American Girls

AddyChanges

Changes for Addy by Connie Porter, 1994.

Since the Civil War ended, most of Addy‘s family has managed to reunite in Philadelphia. The one person who is missing is Addy’s little sister, Esther.  When Addy and her mother escaped from the plantation where they had been living as slaves, they were forced to leave Esther behind with family friends because she was too little to travel.  Since the end of the war, slaves have been released from plantations, but the Walkers haven’t received any word from their friends, Auntie Lula and Uncle Solomon Morgan and don’t know where they or Esther are.

Over the past months, the Walker family has sent inquiries to various aid societies helping war victims and displaced people, asking if the Morgans or Esther have sought help from them.  Finally, they get a response from the Quaker Aid Society, saying that the Morgans and Esther were at one of their camps in North Carolina.  They stayed for awhile because Esther was ill, but as soon as she was well enough to travel, they were eager to move on to Philadelphia.

Addy is happy because the news means that the Morgans and Esther might already be in Philadelphia, looking for them.  However, Addy’s parents are still worried because the Morgans are elderly, and from what the letter said, they were not in good health.  The family makes further inquiries to see if they could be at any of the local hospitals.

Eventually, the search for the Morgans and Esther pays off when Addy finds them at a church.  Uncle Solomon passed away on the journey to Philadelphia, and Esther seems unsure of who the people in her family are because she was so little the last time she saw them.  Auntie Lula pressed on for Philadelphia because she wanted to make sure that Esther made it safely back to her family.  Auntie Lula is in bad health herself, and she knows that she isn’t likely to live much longer, making the reunion bittersweet.

AddyChangesProclamationHowever, Auntie Lula does get to spend a little time with the family before her death, and she tells Addy not to be sad.  People don’t always get everything they want in life, but they can take some pride in what they do accomplish.  Lula and Solomon may not have gotten everything they wanted in life, not having had much time to enjoy being freed from slavery, but they did get to accomplish what was most important to them.  Solomon died knowing that he was a free man, far from the plantation where he’d been a slave.  Lula managed to reunite Esther with her family.  From there, Lula says, she is depending on the young people, like Addy and her family, to make the most they can of their lives, hopes, and dreams.

The theme of this story is hope and the need to persevere with determination.  Life has its difficulties, and not every problem can be solved.  However, things can get better.  After the reunion with Esther, Addy points out to her mother that Esther wasn’t walking or talking when they last saw her, and they never got to experience seeing her learn.  Addy is sad at the time they’ve lost with Esther, which they can never recover.  However, because of Lula and Solomon’s determination to bring Esther to them, they will have many more years to come with Esther.  Addy’s mother also reminds Addy that those who love us never leave us.  Auntie Lula and Uncle Solomon changed the family’s lives for the better because of the good people they were, and their memory will stay with them forever.

In the back, there is a section of historical information about the end of the Civil War, the emancipation of the slaves, and it further explains how racial issues continued into the 20th century, leading to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

AddyChangesHistorical

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Addy Saves the Day

American Girls

AddySummer

Addy Saves the Day by Connie Porter, 1994.

Now that the Civil War is over, families are looking forward to the soldiers returning home and reuniting with loved ones.  Some families have been split forever because loved ones died in the war.  Addy‘s family still doesn’t know what happened to her brother Sam or her little sister Esther.  She and her parents have been making inquiries at various aid societies that have been helping people who were sick, injured, or displaced by the war, but so far, they haven’t received any word about Sam or Esther.  To help raise more money for their search, they’ve started growing vegetables in a community garden that they can sell.

The Walkers aren’t the only family in this position, and their church has decided to hold a public fair to raise money for victims of the war and families in need.  Addy and Sarah are looking forward to taking part in the fair, but they are annoyed because they’ll have to work with bossy Harriet, a snobby girl from their school.  Harriet’s family is wealthier than most black families, and Harriet loves to brag about the things they have that others don’t.  Although many families, like Addy’s, are worried about not knowing where their relatives are or whether they are alive or dead, Harriet brags about knowing exactly which army unit her uncle is in and what a distinguished career he has had.  Harriet is eager to take part in the fair and tell the other children what to do, but her family doesn’t need any charity themselves.

Harriet tries to tell the children’s group at the church what they should do for their act at the fair, and it mainly involves her being the star of the show.  However, the group decides to take Addy’s suggestion instead.  They are going to make puppets out of old thread spools and put on a puppet show.  They can also sell some of the puppets they make.  Addy is proud that her idea was the one that the group chose because she thinks of it as a victory over snobby Harriet, but her parents remind her that the fair isn’t supposed to be a contest.

The purpose of the fair is to raise money to help people, and no one is supposed to compete with anyone.  If the act for the fair is going to be a success, Addy and Harriet will have to find a way of working together to make it happen.  When Harriet picks a fight with Addy while the children are making their puppets, the minister’s wife tells them that she’s going to make them work with each other at the puppet show, forcing them to sort out their differences.

It isn’t until Harriet receives some bad news that she comes to understand the pain that other families, like Addy’s, have been feeling, and Addy comes to see that, in the end, Harriet is just an ordinary person, a little girl with feelings that can be hurt.  With a new understanding of each other, the girls find the motivation that they need to work together and make the fair a success.  Then, when someone tries to steal their group’s hard-earned money, the two of them find a way to stop the thief and get the money back!

This is the book where Addy’s brother rejoins the family.  When he was freed from slavery, he joined the Union army and lost his arm to a battle wound.  He shows up at the fair and recognizes the jokes and riddles Addy tells at the puppet show as ones that he used to tell her.

In the back of the book, there is a section with historical information about the changes taking place in American society around the time of the Civil War with increased immigration and urbanization.  It describes public parks and monuments built after the war.  Since this book took place in summer, it also talks about what people would do in order to cool off from the summer heat.  Wealthier people would travel to resorts, but poorer people would make do with enjoying the relatively cool public parks, swimming (less so for women and girls than men and boys), and taking part in outdoor activities.  In all cases, the various summer activities were still segregated by race with separate areas in public parks and sports teams for black people.

AddySummerHistorical

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Happy Birthday, Addy!

American Girls

AddyBirthday

Happy Birthday, Addy! by Connie Porter, 1994.

Things are improving for Addy and her mother now that her father has finally joined them in Philadelphia.  Addy’s father has found work delivering ice, so the family has been able to move to bigger rooms in a boarding house.  However, making a new life for themselves in freedom still isn’t easy.  Addy’s father worked as a carpenter on the plantation where they used to live, and he’d like to find steady work in carpentry, but he’s having trouble finding an employer who is willing to hire a black man.

Addy’s family might be free from slavery, but they are still not treated as equals to white people.  There are places where black people can’t go and things they aren’t supposed to do, like riding on most of the city streetcars.  It angers and upsets Addy, but she doesn’t know what she can do about it.  She isn’t the only one who feels that way, and there’s been talk of violence in the city over it.

The boarding house where Addy’s family now lives is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Golden.  Then, Mr. Golden’s elderly, blind mother moves in with them.  Affectionately called M’dear, she’s a pleasant lady and tells Addy interesting stories, jokingly saying that she’s so old that she “was there the day God invented dirt.”  When she asks Addy how old she is, Addy says that she’s nine but doesn’t know when her birthday is exactly.  It was common for slaves not to know their birthdays because their parents couldn’t read or write and no one else thought it was important to record the dates of their births.  M’dear tells her that she should claim a birthday for herself.

 

 

Addy’s parents think that choosing a birthday for herself is a good idea, and her father says that he will make ice cream for her new birthday.  He has found a broken ice cream freezer that someone threw out, and he’s fixing it up for the family to use.  However, Addy isn’t sure at first what day she wants to choose.

One day, M’dear is feeling poorly, and she’s out of headache medicine.  Addy and Sarah offer to go get more for her.  To get to the drug store, they get on board one of the streetcars that black people are allowed to ride, which can be dangerous because they have to ride on the outside.  Then, the man at the drug store makes them wait until he’s served the white customers, speaking rudely to them.  When they try to take the streetcar back home, there is an argument that ends with all of the black people being thrown off the streetcar.  When M’dear hears about what the girls went through, she offers some wise thoughts about how people have to continue living their lives and being themselves, no matter what difficulties life throws their way.

 

 

In the end, circumstances continue to improve for Addy’s family when her father finally finds the kind of work he’s been looking for and Addy finds a special day to claim as her birthday when the end of the Civil War is finally announced.

I liked M’Dear’s message that the way people are treated doesn’t really change who they are.  The black people in the story are treated badly not because of what they did so much as what other people think they are or want them to be.  However, what other people think doesn’t change the nature of reality.  No amount of bullying or thinking that someone else is inferior or telling them that they are inferior can actually make them be inferior.  It can make things hard and unpleasant for the other person, but it will never actually change the reality of who they are, and people who think it does delude themselves.  M’Dear may be blind, but she sees much more clearly that most because she understands the reality of the situation better than they do.  Addy’s father has trouble finding work because he is black, but the fact that potential employers don’t like his appearance doesn’t make him any less the craftsman he is.  He has all the skills he needs; he just needs someone who has the ability to notice them.

In the back of the book, there is a section with historical information about how children were raised during the Civil War with some special information about the lives of slave children.  It also talks about children helped to support the war effort.

 

 

Posted on by TracyC

Addy’s Surprise

American Girls

AddySuprise

Addy’s Surprise by Connie Porter, 1993.

Christmas is coming, and although Addy and her mother have started to establish a new life for themselves in Philadelphia, they miss the rest of their family, whose whereabouts are still unknown.  Money is tight, and Addy’s mother is trying to save up for a new lamp for their room at Mrs. Ford’s.  Addy wants to buy her mother a pretty red scarf at the second-hand shop for Christmas, but saving up the tips she earns delivering packages for Mrs. Ford is slow.  Addy still wishes that they could afford beautiful dresses, like the rich women who visit the dress shop.One thing that Addy is looking forward to is the Christmas celebration at their church.  Her new friend, Sarah, has told her all about it.  She describes the potluck dinner, the beautiful decorations, and the shadow play they have to entertain the children.

 

Then, at church, the Reverend Drake tells everyone that more “freedmen,” people who have just come out of slavery, will be arriving in the city soon.  Reverend Drake asks the congregation to help, just as many of them received help when they first arrived.  Like Addy and her mother, these new people will be arriving with almost nothing, not knowing where to go and what to do, and will need money for food and clothes and places to live.  Addy and her mother decide that they want to help, although it means stretching their already-tight finances even tighter.

Addy is reluctant to part with the little money she’s been saving to buy the scarf for her mother, so she offers to help out in greeting the new arrivals and taking them to the church instead.  When Addy and Sarah go to the pier to meet them and guide them to the church, Addy feels badly at seeing the condition they are in.  This particular group is made up of slaves who were freed because the owner of their plantation was under pressure from the war.  He simply turned them loose with only the clothes on their backs and little idea of where to go or how to get help in establishing a new life.  Some of them are sick or injured, some have no shoes in the winter cold, and none of them have had enough to eat.  Addy reassures them that the church will help them.  The baby in the group particularly makes Addy think of her little sister, Esther, who is still in slavery in the South.  Addy begins to feel like the things she was worried about before, like dresses, a new lamp, and the scarf aren’t as important as she once thought they were.  When Addy has finally collected enough money for the scarf for her mother, she decides to donate the money to help the others instead.

It looks like Addy and her mother won’t be getting the special things that they had hoped for at Christmas, but Christmas is a time of surprises.  Through their own hard work, they’ve made some special friends in Philadelphia who care about them, and other, unexpected circumstances allow Addy to not only get the special Christmas dress she’s been dreaming of  (a customer returns a dress to the shop because her daughter can’t fit into it anymore) but to make a scarf of her own to replace the one that she was going to buy for her mother.  The Christmas party at the church is as wonderful as Addy expected, but there’s an even more wonderful surprise to come: Addy’s father has finally made it to Philadelphia!

 

I like the way Addy and her mother showed generosity and consideration to others in the story, even though they are also somewhat struggling themselves.  Through their own hard work and ingenuity, they manage to make their own Christmas presents with scraps from the dress shop, and Mrs. Ford shows her appreciation for their hard work by buying them the lamp they need.  Good things come to those who work for them!

AddySurpriseHistorical

There is a section in the back with historical information about Christmas celebrations around the time of the Civil War.  Because of the war, families weren’t always able to get or afford things they could before.  People sometimes raised money for soldiers or send them special care packages.  Slaves were allowed small celebrations, being released from work for a new days and given small gifts from the plantation owners.

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Addy Learns a Lesson

American Girls

AddyLesson

Addy Learns a Lesson by Connie Porter, 1993.

AddyLessonArrivalAfter escaping from slavery, Addy and her mother finally arrive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they will start a new life.  Philadelphia is a big city, and at first, Addy feels lost, not knowing where to go and what to do.  They have no family or friends to turn to, and neither she or her mother can even read the street signs, never having been taught to read.  They are dependent on help from other free black people, former slaves who have already established themselves in the community.

The first people they meet in Philadelphia are Mrs. Moore and her daughter, Sarah.  They are part of the Freedom Society of Trinity A.M.E. Church, which helps new arrivals escaping from slavery, like Addy and her mother.  The Moores take them to the church, where they attend a church supper, along with some other new arrivals.  Mrs. Moore asks Addy’s mother what work skills she has, and when she says that she can sew, Mrs. Moore says that she might be able to get a job in a dress shop.  Mrs. Ford, the white woman who owns the shop, is strict and fussy, but she hires Addy’s mother and gives them a room to live in.

Life in freedom isn’t as glamorous as Addy thought it would be at first.  Her mother works hard for little pay, and the attic room where they live is small and uncomfortable. She misses the rest of their family and still doesn’t know where her father and brother are.  There are also things that black people in Philadelphia can’t do, even though they aren’t slaves, like riding on the streetcar.

However, there is one thing that Addy is looking forward to: going to school for the first time.  Sarah Moore is Addy’s age, and she tells Addy about her family escaped from slavery in Virginia.  Like Addy, she couldn’t read when she first arrived, but now, Sarah attends school.  Addy is excited about attending the same school as Sarah and happy that she has made a new friend.  Addy’s new teacher, Miss Dunn, was also a former slave from North Carolina, and she reassures Addy that, although she hasn’t been to school before or learned to read yet, it won’t be long before she learns.

 

All of the other children at school are black, many of them former slaves.  However, Addy can’t help but notice that some of their families are more prosperous than others.  In particular, a girl named Harriet wears beautiful dresses, the kind that Addy has dreamed of having herself.  Sarah and Harriet don’t get along because Harriet is snobbish, but Addy is fascinated by her, wishing that she could have things like Harriet has.  Harriet says that her family were never slaves, and as bossy as Harriet is, Addy can’t help but admire her.  Harriet is nice to Addy at first, bragging about how smart she is and how much she can help Addy, but she isn’t as patient or as helpful to Addy as Sarah is.

When there is a spelling match at school, Addy accepts Harriet’s invitation to go to her house to study.  Harriet always seems to do well in class, and Addy is curious to see what her house is like.  However, Harriet and her friends force Addy to be their “flunky,” carrying all of their books, and they say insulting things about Sarah.  Then, Harriet retracts the invitation to study.

As Addy sees the way Harriet takes advantage of her, she comes to realize some important things about the way people act and about herself and the type of friends she really wants in her new life.  Unlike Harriet, Sarah is Addy’s real friend.  Addy realizes that she doesn’t need to admire people like Harriet because she is smart and works hard and can do just fine without Harriet’s false friendship.

 

In the back of the book, there is a section of historical information about education during the American Civil War, especially for black children.  It was actually against the law to teach slaves to read during Addy’s time, although some were able to learn in secret.  Even for free blacks in the North, there were few educational opportunities.  Black children couldn’t go to school with white children, and the schools for black children were poor, unable to afford many supplies.  Over time, more and more black people were able to get an education, in spite of the difficulties involved, and education helped to improve their lives.  However, segregated schools remained the norm until the 20th century.

I liked the way they showed the medal that Addy wins in the spelling bee.  Students who particularly excelled at a subject in class were sometimes given a small medal on a pin to wear as a badge of honor, something that people don’t do in modern times.

 

Posted on by TracyC

Meet Addy

American Girls

MeetAddy

Meet Addy by Connie Porter, 1993.

MeetAddySlaveBuyerAddy is nine years old, and she has lived her entire life so far as a slave on a plantation in North Carolina.  It is the time of the American Civil War, and Addy’s parents are worried about the future of their children.

One night, she hears her father saying to her mother that they ought to take the whole family and run away.  Her mother is worried that it’s too dangerous.  She hopes that soon the war will end, and they will be freed.  However, Addy’s father is worried that the family might be split up before that can happen because there is talk that the plantation owner, Master Stevens, might sell some of his slaves, and families wouldn’t necessarily be sold together.

His fears turn out to be justified because, soon after, while Addy is helping to serve dinner to a guest at the plantation house, she finds out that Master Stevens is planning to sell her father and brother to someone else.  She tries to get to them and tell them to run away before they can be taken away, but the overseer stops her.  Addy sees her father and brother taken away in chains.

With Addy’s father and brother gone, her mother has a serious talk with Addy about their future.  The two of them can follow the plan and run away to the North, establishing a new life for themselves and hopefully arranging for their family to be reunited later.  If they don’t take this opportunity to leave, there is the possibility that the family will be fractured further.  The man Master Stevens sold Addy’s father and brother to has already said that he might like to buy Addy as well.

MeetAddyMotherSisterAlthough Addy and her mother are frightened at the idea of running away, they decide that this is their only chance to escape together.  Addy is upset when her mother tells her that they can’t bring her baby sister with them.  She is too young for the journey, and if she cries, it might give them away.  Instead, they will leave little Esther with their close friends, Auntie Lula and Uncle Solomon Morgan.  They plan to find a way to send for them when the war is over.

Addy and her mother have to seek out the woman that Addy’s father had talked about, Miss Caroline.  She’s a member of the Underground Railroad and can help them get out of North Carolina and go to Philadelphia, where Addy’s father had planned to take the family.

They leave in the middle of the night and travel by night.  The journey is hazardous, and there are times when they are almost caught.  At one point, Addy’s mother nearly drowns crossing a river.  But, together, they face the dangers, knowing that a better life awaits them at the end of their journey.  Even when they reach Miss Caroline, Addy’s story is really just beginning.

In the back, there is a section with historical information about the origins of slavery in North America and what the lives of slaves were like.  One thing that I kind of wish they had mentioned was about how widely indentured servitude was used in early American history and how it helped to make the idea of slavery more appealing in early America, which was something one of my old college professors once talked about.

 

Indentured servitude is when someone works off a debt by working for someone else for free for certain period of time.  Often, this was how poor people could pay for passage to America during Colonial times.  In exchange for someone paying the price of their passage on a ship, they would work for them for awhile.  When that time was over, the indentured servant could move on to new employment or had to be paid for his work.  When plantation owners started buying slaves, what they were really saying was that they wanted permanent indentured servants, ones that could never leave them, that wouldn’t have any end to their servitude because it wasn’t based on any debt.  It couldn’t be based on any debt because the slaves owed them nothing.  The issue for the plantation owners was that they couldn’t build plantations the size they wanted and pay the labor to support them at the same time, so their solution to the problem was free labor — or at least, labor that cost no more than an indentured servant would: one initial outlay for the purchase and then some basic food and clothing to keep the workers going.

The practice of slavery is disgusting, but for me, it’s the attitude behind it that’s the real problem.  The plantation owners didn’t have any right to anyone’s free labor, and they knew there was no debt involved.  They just didn’t want to pay people, and just not wanting to pay people was a good enough reason for them.  In the end, whatever they said about race and their own superiority, it was all really about the money all along.  They would have said anything, done anything, to turn more profit for themselves, and because no one stopped them for a long time, that’s exactly what they did.  The rest was basically excuses piled upon justifications piled on more self-entitled excuses and more self-centered justifications.  They did what they did mainly because they could get away with it, and the fact that they could get away with it made them feel like it was all right.  It wasn’t.

 

 

Posted on by TracyC

The Bassumtyte Treasure

BassumtyteTreasureThe Bassumtyte Treasure by Jane Louise Curry, 1978.

When young Tommy Bassumtyte’s parents died, he went to live with his grandfather. However, his grandfather is now dead, and he is living with his 92-year-old great-aunt, who is in a wheelchair, and her 72-year-old daughter, who has recently had her driver’s license revoked due to her poor eyesight. Although the pair of them have taken good care of Tommy, neighbors have become concerned that they will not be able to do so for much longer because of their age and failing health. Rather than see Tommy sent to a foster home, they decide that he must go to the man who Tommy learns should really be his legal guardian, a distant cousin also named Thomas who lives in the family’s ancestral home, Boxleton House, in England.

The elder Thomas Bassumtyte, who should have taken Tommy when his grandfather passed away, has also since died, but his son, also named Thomas, agrees to take him. Tommy is quickly shipped off to England before there can be a custody hearing in the United States about him because the relatives fear that some official might try to prevent Tommy from being sent out of the country. Tommy is eager to go because he remembers fantastic stories that his grandfather told him about Boxleton House. The current Thomas Bassumtyte also lives there, although the place has become rather run-down, and he fears that he will not be able to keep the place much longer. Thomas was a mountain climber, but he was injured in a fall and hasn’t been able to work much since. He tells Tommy that the two of them might have to move when he is fully recovered and can do more work for the Foreign Office, but Tommy loves Boxleton House from the first moment he sees it and wants to stay.

According to the lore of Boxleton House, a distant ancestor of theirs hid a treasure there, but no one has been able to find it. If young Tommy and Thomas can find it, it would solve many of their problems, and they would be able to keep the house and restore it. All young Tommy has is the mysterious rhyme that his grandfather told him and the strange medallion that his great-grandfather brought with him when he went to the United States in the late 1800s. Thomas tells him that the treasure was supposedly hidden by a distant ancestor of theirs who was fond of riddles, called Old Thomas.

The Bassumtytes were secretly Catholic during the reign of Elizabeth I. Old Thomas was alive then and had a son called Tall Thomas. Tall Thomas traveled frequently and was mysterious about the places he went. One night, he returned to Boxleton House with a young baby, who he said was his son. He had married in secret, and his young wife had died shortly after giving birth. Tall Thomas also brought her body back to Boxleton for burial. However, that wasn’t Tall Thomas’s only secret. Although he remarried, giving his son a stepmother, and lived on for a number of years, he was eventually executed for smuggling messages for the captive Catholic queen, Mary, Queen of Scots. The family was stripped of its noble title and only barely managed to hang onto their house and land. If there was a treasure hidden during this time, it was probably something that the Bassumtytes were afraid would be confiscated by the queen’s soldiers as punishment for the family’s disloyalty or something that Mary had given to Tall Thomas to hide for her.

As Thomas tells Tommy more about the house and the family’s history, he points out Tommy’s uncanny resemblance to Small Thomas, Tall Thomas’s son, as shown in an old painting. Tommy feels a strange connection to Small Thomas, and begins seeing and hearing strange things. An older woman comforts him in the middle of the night, having him recite the same rhyme that his grandfather taught him. A small painting later reveals that this woman was Small Thomas’s grandmother. She appears to Tommy other times, giving him a glimpse back in time and clues to solve the puzzles of Boxleton House.

It is only when Thomas accepts the advice of a family friend who works for a museum that they come to understand the full significance of their family’s heirlooms and the hidden treasure. The treasure may not be quite what the Bassumtytes have always believed it was, but then, the Bassumtytes themselves aren’t quite who they always thought they were, either.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC · 2 Comments

Medieval Holidays and Festivals

MedievalHolidays

Medieval Holidays and Festivals: A Calendar of Celebrations by Madeleine Pelner Cosman, 1981.

This book explains the holidays that people celebrated in Medieval times and how these holidays would have been celebrated, along with some special information about Medieval feasts.  The author also explains a little about how historians uncover and interpret information about people’s lives in the past.

MedievalHolidayProcession

Many of the holidays celebrated in Medieval times tended to be either religious in nature or having to do with the changing of seasons.

The holidays included in this book are listed by month:

MedievalHolidaysHorsesJanuary — Twelfth Night — An extension of Christmas (remember the Twelve Days of Christmas song?), Twelfth Night is also known as Epiphany — the night that the Three Wise Men supposedly visited baby Jesus after his birth.

February — St. Valentine’s Day

March — Easter

April — All Fool’s Day — Not just a day for pranks, but when everything is turned upside down and backwards, and people intentionally did the opposite of whatever they usually did in many ways.  Basically, a celebration of everything silly and ridiculous.

May — Mayday — A celebration of spring.

June — Midsummer Eve — A celebration of summer.

MedievalHolidayBishopJuly — St. Swithin’s Day — St. Swithin was a bishop of Winchester who had asked to be buried without great ceremony upon his death.  However, people later decided to give him a grand tomb.  When they tried to place his body in the tomb, it started raining heavily and didn’t stop until they moved the body to a new location.  They took the rain to be an expression of St. Swithin’s displeasure at the unwanted tomb.  From then on, this time of year was used to predict rainfall for the rest of summer.

August — Lammas Day — The word Lammas meant “Loaf Mass,” which was when there would be special blessings for bread and grain and thanks given for bountiful harvests.  The holiday was marked by the baking of a variety of special breads, including those in usual shapes, flavors, and colors.  Some of them could be very elaborate.

September — Michaelmas — The holiday celebrating St. Michael is oddly associated with three things that few people would associate with each other: gloves, geese, and ginger.  The glove was the symbol of the market of craftsmen held on Michaelmas.  Geese and foods flavored with ginger were popular dishes served at Michaelmas.

October — Halloween

November — Catherning, or St. Catherine’s Day — St. Catherine of Alexandria was learned noblewoman who was killed on a wheel (it was a bizarre and disgusting form of execution).  The holiday honoring her was associated with wheels, women (especially unmarried women and women students), and the professions which were associated with her such as lawyers, carpenters, spinners, lace makers.

December — Christmas

Each section in the book describes special traditions associated with each holiday, including games that would have been played and food that would have been eaten at that time.

In the back of the book, there is a section that explain decorations used for Medieval feasts, how to hold a Medieval-themed feast in modern times, and Medieval costumes. There is also a section of Medieval recipes.

MedievalHolidaysDestinyCakes

This book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.