by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 13, 2010

"A Good Night for Freedom" offers a special experience - a children's book that teaches history. "I was delivering butter to Aunt Katy," remembers the narrator, who also supplies a crucial detail. It's 1839 - and she's discovered two little girls hiding in Aunt Katy's cellar. In this Indiana town, there's a rumor that Aunt Katy helps runaway slaves. And if there's any question, the book's title page includes a picture of Levi Coffin, the president of the Underground Railroad.

But the book doesn't focus on Katy and Levi Coffin. Instead, it opens with that intimate moment when the three little girls stand face to face in the chilly air of a dark cellar - and its aftermath. On the way home Katy hears an ominous question from four ugly men riding horses. "Seen any stray horses...?  Seen any stray anything?" And then they hand her a wanted poster to deliver to her parents.  It's about the two little girls - Susan and Margaret - identifying them as runaway slaves.

"I don't like slavery," her father tells her, "but there's a law against helpin' runaways." And soon the story shows the girl confronting the very same dilemma. She asks Mr. Coffin, at his dry goods store, about her father's warning about laws against helping runaways.

"And what doest thou think about that law?" Mr. Coffin asks her pointedly.

The historical facts are introduced softly. (For example, that Levi Coffin is a Quaker, and that when other townspeople enter his store, he must lower his voice.) But the book's author - Barbara Olenyik Morrow - poignantly suggests Coffin's own philosophy. "It is right to listen to they father... But thou has a conscience, child..."

Eventually the girl confronts Aunt Katy about the runaways in her cellar. There's a silence in the air, broken only by the creaking of the porch's boards. And then Katy settles the dilemma in a very personal way.  She simply leaves the three girls together to talk in her kitchen. A runaway slave says she's going to become free, get a job, and then buy her mother out of slavery. How will she do that?

"Don't know. Got to get to freedom first."

And it's then that the slave hunters show up - pounding on the door and drawing a crowd. The narrating girl has escaped outside, but watches as they break the house's windows. Soon the slave hunter's will ask her where the runaways have gone. And she'll have to make the right choice.

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