ANNOTATION

Winner of the 2006 Coretta Scott King Author Award

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Emma is the property of Pierce Butler and has taken care of his daughters, Sarah and Frances, since their parents divorced. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, like their mother's, even as a rift in morals has ripped the Butler household apart. Sarah and her mother oppose the inhumanity of slavery, while Frances and her father believe in the Southern way of life and treatment of blacks.

Now, to pay off mounting gambling debts, Pierce decides to cash in his "assets" and host the biggest slave auction in American history. At the price of his humanity, he reaps just over $300,000 as the skies weep nonstop on the proceedings below. For although Butler had promised Emma's parents not to sell her, money, desperation, and greed enable him to justify any misdeed. Through flashbacks and flash-forwards, and shifting first-person points of view, readers will travel with Emma and others through time and place, and come to understand that every decision has consequences, and final judgments is handed down not by man, but by his maker.

Julius Lester, a master of storytelling, transforms this little-known piece of American history into one of the most dramatic and impressive works of his brilliant career.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Unfolding like a play, Lester's novel in dialogue-based on actual events-cannot help but be informed by his research and writing for his 1969 Newbery Honor book, To Be a Slave. In many ways, the scenes here beg to be dramatized upon a stage; many sections read like monologues, but each contributes to a powerful whole. Some readers may initially have trouble connecting Emma, the children's nursemaid, to her parents, Mattie and Will, the master's manservant. As the book progresses, however, the relationships become crystal clear. The book opens as, in Mattie's words, "The rain is coming down as hard as regret." Master Butler is about to hold an auction to sell off 429 slaves in order to repay a gambling debt. Other details unfold, as Will mentions how he and Master Butler grew up together ("He used to look up to me like I was his big brother"); Emma mentions that Mistress Fannie left her husband a year before, and an author's note explains that Fannie Kemble, who opposed slavery, married Pierce Butler not knowing that he owned slaves. The ultimate betrayal occurs when Master Butler agrees to sell Emma, the only person whom Sara, his oldest child, trusts. Lester poignantly conveys how the auction polarizes the two sisters: Sara who detests slavery, and Frances who sides with her father. Some of the flashback sections (particularly that of the "slave-seller") interrupt the flow of events, but the novel provides a compelling opportunity for children to step into the shoes of those whose lives were torn apart by slavery. Ages 9-13. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Valerie O. Patterson

During two rainy days in early March, 1859, the largest auction of slaves in America was held in Savannah, Georgia. Pierce Butler, a grandson of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the former husband of English actress and abolitionist Fanny Kremble, sold more than 400 slaves to pay his gambling debts. Against the backdrop of the so-called "Weeping Time," award-winning author Julius Lester has woven different first-person voices—told in flashback and flash forward scenes—into a moving, generational tale. The main story line is that of Emma, the slave girl who takes care of Butler's children until he breaks a promise and sells her at the auction. Neither quite poetry nor a play, the book gives the voices of each character life and brings the reader closer to understanding, on an individual basis, the legacy of slavery and its impact on whites and blacks alike. The author is the Newbery Honor Book award winner for To Be a Slave. 2005, Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, Ages 9 to 13.

KLIATT - KaaVonia Hinton

Nearly 200 years ago it rained for two days, merging God's tears with those of over 400 slaves auctioned in Georgia, separated from loved ones forever. In 13 chapters and 14 interludes, Lester shares their stories, beginning with Emma, the central character, who is sold unexpectedly, though she later escapes and eventually finds freedom in Canada. Other characters reveal how the auction changed their lives as well. The ambitious slave-seller loses his voice during the auction, ruining his career. Jeffrey's master is unable to buy his lover Dorcas, but he remains faithful to her and is crushed after the Civil War when he learns she is married to someone else. Emma shares the story of the day of tears with her granddaughter, who is doing a report on American slavery. She emphasizes the goodness of white abolitionists and others like her slave owner's daughter, for whom her own daughter was named. While it has become fashionable to tell slave stories from multiple perspectives, acknowledging that the institution devastated blacks and whites, leaving us all with a mixture of feelings, including guilt, this perspective seems contrived at times. The familiar types are all present: the loyal slave, the benevolent master/mistress, the devoted mammy figure, and the subversive slave. Yet, this book does what history texts are not designed to do: it humanizes the people involved as a Georgia plantation owner made history, having orchestrated the largest slave auction to ever take place. The final note from the author is especially important as it shares bibliographical sources used to create this novel, which reads more like a play. Many of the characters are based on real people and both the plotand subplots are influenced by real events that will capture the attention of young readers. KLIATT Codes: JSA—Recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2005, Hyperion, 175p. bibliog., Ages 12 to adult.

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9-This powerful and engaging historical novel is told in dialogue and through monologues. It also moves around in time, from the period when the story takes place to "interludes," in which the various characters look back on these events years later. It begins with a factual event-the largest slave auction in United States history that took place in 1859 on Pierce Butler's plantation in Georgia. The book introduces Butler, his abolitionist ex-wife Fanny Kemble, their two daughters, the auctioneer, and a number of slaves sold to pay off Butler's gambling debts. Emma, a fictional house slave, is the centerpiece of the novel. She cares for the master's daughters and has been promised that she will never be sold. On the last day of the auction, Butler impulsively sells her to a woman from Kentucky. There she marries, runs away, and eventually gains her freedom in Canada. Lester has done an admirable job of portraying the simmering anger and aching sadness that the slaves must have felt. Each character is well drawn and believable. Both blacks and whites liberally use the word "nigger," which will be jarring to modern-day students. The text itself is easy to read and flows nicely. Different typefaces distinguish the characters' monologues, their dialogues with one another, and their memories. Still, middle school readers may have some difficulty following the plot until they get used to the unusual format. Altogether this novel does a superb job of showing the inhumanity of slavery. It begs to be read aloud, and it could be used in sections to produce some stunning reader's theatre.-Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

On a day when rain came down "hard as sorrow," George Weems sets out to sell more slaves at one time than anyone ever had. Pierce Butler must sell off hundreds of slaves to cover gambling debts and 12-year-old Emma is one of his victims. Named after Lester's grandmother, whose mother was a slave, Emma is part of a large cast of characters-slaves, owners, businessmen and abolitionists-who tell their own stories, in their own voices. Interludes occasionally have characters return in old age to reflect on their lives since the auction, a brilliant technique that demonstrates, in some characters, the persistence of racist belief. Other, good-hearted, characters, white and black, act towards each other with respect and dignity and affirm the possibilities of conscience and common humanity even in the worst of times. This important novel, based on an actual slave auction in 1859, begs to be performed, though teachers and performers may be hesitant to utter the racist language of the day. Powerful theater and one of Lester's finest works. (cast of characters, author's note) (Fiction. 12+)