Life is Movie

Pathway to Freedom

News: Slaves for sale, runaway slaves, abolitionist wrecks havoc $1200 reward for apprehending him… *tosses newspaper aside*

Slave owners some hundred years or so ago… can’t get enough slaves… horrible humans. Hun? Oh! Right, as you heard, there’s slavery aboard in USA early as I can remember… Yes, bad time to be in!

Getting back, this book we’ve been reading is Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker! It is a tale of courage, hope, slavery, and much others. Two black slave girls taken from their families, were planning to escape to Canada because of all the insanity on that god-forsaken no-good plantation of those Rileys… those two girls are called… Julilly (or June Lilly) and her friend, Liza!

Julilly is a tall, strong kid and is still growing, as her mom and Sims (the overseer for the Rileys’ plantation) had said near the beginning (big for her age of 12). She is thoughtful; she always looked out for Liza. She is also very courageous; she planned to escape to Canada no matter the cost and she got water for the children in the wagon when they were thirsty, since no one else dared. Oh, she’s quite clever for a slave girl and she’s also very kind-hearted. She did seem to know what to do when they were all thirsty in the wagon; when she poured water over the three mens’ legs in the wagon and during their escape, she told Liza that they were in Canada when Liza thought they were exposed in public.

Liza is bent-backed from too much beatings, and… quite the opposite of Julilly. She’s thankful when Julilly picked the higher branches, also, she’s kind by being the only person in the plantation to talk with Julilly. But she’s tough on the inside like Julilly. Determined too, like Julilly, they want one thing–escape. Liza is mostly like Julilly in a lot of ways and not much differences.

I’d like to be their friend in that they are very determined like a T- Rex, waiting for the right time then… springs into action! And I also feel responsibility for almost everything on this land!!!

Here are some of the minor characters that made this book possible: Mammy Sally, Adam, Lester, Ben, Sims, Mr. Ross, Levi Coffin, slave owners, slave hunters, Slaves, innocent bystanders and members of the Underground Railway.

This story starts about 150 years ago, in southern USA, Henson plantation near Richmond, Virginia. It was morning… Missy Henson sold her slaves to slave traders who were from the deep south and the slaves include Julilly who got separated from her mother; her mom told her about not forgetting Canada, the country that lets everyone in there be free, when they got separated.

When Julilly arrived at the Riley’s plantation in the deep south, she met Liza, the only girl in the cabin that talked to her and Liza also knew about Canada.

The plantation was a HORRIBLE place to be in! The owner feeds food to slaves which they usually feed pigs; the cabins are dark, smelly and creepy at night in the fields; the overseer whips whoever works slowly and there is only a 15-minute break in the whole 4 a.m.- 10 or 11 p.m.

One day, A. Ross, an abolitionist of the Underground Railroad arrives at the plantation as a visitor, saying he is a Canadian bird-studier and picks Adam and Lester, two of the three slave men that walked with the wagon to the Riley’s plantation, to help him navigate through the forest. After, Julilly and Liza met Mr.Ross at night, planing to escape. They find a helper of Mr.Ross and the man drives them to an abandoned farm, not long afterward, Adam and Lester were caught. Then the girls start journeying to Canada… alone.

On their journey, they live on a few berries and water but when they try to ask for some food from a woman in a hut, she threatens them away with a gun. Their luck finally showed up when they met a white man that took them to the Appalachians where they met the Mennonites, people who spoke “German” and they got a bath, food and rest until the next day, when slave traders came to the village to find the runaway slaves.

They ran, but not far when a ferocious storm kicked up and they were forced to take shelter under a rock; after they got down from the mountains, they met a generous old slave man that gave them his food to help and went back to work.

They followed some train tracks to Jeb Brown’s, a kind black man working for the Underground Railroad that hides and rows black slaves across the Ohio; they got food and learned about the Underground Railroad, an organization of black and white people revolving against slavery secretly by helping slaves sneaking away to Canada, but after a sheriff came, that meant their visit was over and they were rowed across after they hid in the upstairs and were met by an Underground Railroad member in a horse-drawn wagon and he rode them to Levi Coffin (the “president” of the Underground Railroad) ‘s home.

They ate and got clothes there as well as hid there when another sheriff came to the home; soon after Julilly and Liza’s visit, the two girls left on a horse-drawn carriage and were dropped off at a REAL railroad station where they were in bags to be disguised as “dried goods” and they spent time on the train eating and were met by Mr.Ross at one station and went to a ship– The Mayflower and were then met by the captain, who showed them their cabin on the ship and told them about how to open the door.

Soon after, there were slave hunters aboard to search the ship top to bottom so the captain hid the girls in the lifeboat where they had some food and when the captain returned with the men some time after they didn’t find the slaves and they sailed away.

The next day Julilly, Liza and the captain arrived at Canada, and they saw a man waving towards them when they remembered they were in Canada–FREE! They were then rode to St. Catherine’s, a small city in southern Canada, Lester (who also escaped) ‘s new job town and he held a surprise… see later.

Julilly and Liza found out even though they were free, they couldn’t read but they met a person they haven’t met in a long time– Mammy Sally (Julilly’s mom). Yes, Julilly was ENLIGHTENED. They talked about their adventure to Canada and Mammy Sally sang words that turned to a song. Each one of them had a future to think about, living on the new free land.

If I ever met the author of this book, I’d ask some questions such as, “Interesting story, but are you going to write some more?” or “Are you going to write your own introduction?” Because I see L.H.’s but not B.S.’s and I enjoyed this story very much, lots of suspense– and you can shape a small and blurry picture of what it says in the book. Well written and yes, I like these kinds of books and much others.

I’d recommend this book to lots of people; it tells how life was like back then, how cruel slave traders were, how gracious the abolitionists were and how difficult it is for them to take even two slaves across the border. This book is also excellent for history learners or non-history learners to have a view of the past.

In the book, the blacks of St. Catherine can’t read or write. So if I was the mayor of that town, first, I would build a school there and provide supplies for the blacks. Then, if the whites and blacks get along, I can move the students from the blacks’ school into the whites’ school; if not then I’ll keep things the way they are. Finally, I’ll let the blacks have a few more jobs and raise their salary by 5%.

This review is also about:

• underground to canada movie (4)
• underground to canada book (2)
• book underground to canada barbara smucker (1)
• underground to canada movie movie (1)
• underground to canada differences in the plantations (1)
• the underground to canada (1)
• mr ross in underground to canada (1)
• liza julily bend back (1)
• is liza responsible in underground to canada? (1)
• history of slave a barbara smucker story of underground to canada the movie (1)

By leon Posted in Book Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.