There are people who quietly change the world significantly. Fortunately, we are made aware of their purpose through the adept work of children's authors and illustrators. William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad (Peachtree Publishing Company Inc., November 1, 2020) written and illustrated by Don Tate engages readers through a meticulously researched narrative and atmospheric, dramatic, and realistic illustrations.
at a time when the United States
was split in two.
In the North,
Black people were free.
In the South,
they were enslaved by whites.
Parents, Levin and Sidney Steel, were held in slavery in Maryland. They had four children. Levin purchased his freedom and left. Sidney, ran away with her two daughters, leaving her sons. (Can you imagine the heartache of the choices these parents made?)
Levin and Sidney found each other in the woods of New Jersey and managed through a great deal of hardship to survive. Their youngest child, of now fifteen, was born in 1821. They gave him the name of William.
Early in his life, at eight years of age, William was known in his neighborhood as one to be trusted and as one who would always lend a helping hand. Life in the North, however free it was, was never easy for a Black man or woman. William was seventeen before he could attend school safely. At twenty-three, William went to Philadelphia. Life there for three years was miserable, hard work, barely enough to eat and no home.
It was when William went to work for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society as a clerk that his life changed for the better. Although his pay was meager, William became office manager through his diligence and hard work. His home became a stop on the Underground Railroad. William spoke with the visitors who stopped at his station. One man, who was enslaved for 40 years, told a story which would change many lives.
This man's story prompted William to start keeping a written record of all the stories. He wrote down the escaped slaves' names, their physical characteristics, who enslaved them, where they lived, and where they wanted to go. His work inside and outside of the Society increased but was put in danger by the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.
William Still protected his written journals with a clever plan. After fourteen years at the Society, he left to become one of the most prominent businessmen of his time. He continued to work for the betterment of Black people and their rights with several achievements. His book, The Underground Rail Road was published in 1872.
Gripping, heartbreaking, and triumphant are words to use when describing this narrative penned by Don Tate. The truth of William's life and of the lives around him are told in detail with specific incidents in support of those truths. When Don Tate tells the story of this man's life it is more vivid through his use of language. He speaks with the words of a storyteller, bringing us deep into the account. Here is a passage.
First things first:
he needed a job, and a roof over his head.
Neither came readily.
For three long years,
William bounced
from low-paying job,
to low-paying job.
He threshed clamshells.
Hauled wood. Laid bricks.
He peddled oysters.
Dug wells. Hawked clothes.
He worked on a dock, then at a hotel.
Barely earning the smell of money.
Long, cold winters. Grumbling belly.
No decent place to lay his head.
Not as glamorous
as the life he had imagined.
[I am working with an F & G]
Purple has long been a color representative of positive connotations. By using it as the background on the front and back of the open dust jacket, this elevates the importance of Will Still's life to its rightful importance. The design choice of having the figures of those lives William Still is recording in his book behind him is powerful. William did this by hand with a quill dipped in ink. He often wrote by candlelight. To the left, on the back, an incident which changed the course of William's life is portrayed. The words above this image read:
That's what stories can do.
Protest injustice.
Soothe. Teach. Inspire. Connect.
Stories save lives.
Many of the elements on the front and the back are varnished.
On the opening and closing endpapers are enlarged representations of pages from William's journal. On the second set of endpapers, at the conclusion, Don Tate has interpretated the writing for us. Over each handwritten line is a typed line of what William said. On the initial title page three individuals stand to the left of William as he writes in his journal. On the formal title page beneath the text is a quill and ink well.
Each illustration,
rendered digitally
spans two page, a full page, or a page and one half creating a column for text. Sometimes a smaller image will be placed in those columns containing text. Don Tate for the sake of visual interpretation will break frames for artistic flow. At one point a smaller picture is placed within a large one for a compelling depiction. At every portion of William Still's life, Don Tate creates expressive moments, moments leaving a mark on your heart.
One of my many, many favorite illustrations is one where eight-year-old William is shown leading a beaten, elderly man through the nearby woods at night. This illustrations spans one-and-one-half pages. To the left of the gutter, high on a hill, two slave hunters with a light seek the escaped slave. To the right of the gutter, among the trees, William grasping the man's left hand, guides him. The man is bent and hardly able to walk, but William, though barefoot like the man, is certain of their destination. The tenseness of these moments is visible. Darkness and light pair perfectly.
Readers will find themselves completely enthralled by this man's accomplishments when reading William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad written and illustrated by Don Tate. At the close of the book is a The Life and Times of William Tell timeline, an Author's Note, and an informative three-part bibliography. I highly recommend this title for your professional and personal collections.
To learn more about Don Tate and his other work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website. Don Tate has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube. At the publisher's website is an excerpt, teacher's guide, and a poster. Don Tate chats with Nick Patton at Picturebooking. Please enjoy the video.
