Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt

**Lisa Bueno** (0:00)
Okay, our friends. So today, we are reading a story for you called Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:11)
Do you know what a quilt is?

**Philip** (0:14)
Yeah, it's kind of like a blanket, they have a bunch of patches.

**Lisa Bueno** (0:18)
Yeah, if you would look.

**Philip** (0:21)
It's a blanket, a sheet or a comforter, sometimes even pillowcases.

**Lisa Bueno** (0:32)
Right.

**Philip** (0:32)
Something like that, that's made out of patches of old blankets or old sheets or old pillowcases. Yeah.

**Lisa Bueno** (0:42)
Or stuff that's been hand made to look a certain way. Did you know that sometimes quilts are pieces of, well, they are always pieces of arts, but sometimes they have special meanings to them?

**Philip** (0:57)
They're pieces of special wraps, special blankets and stuff, aligned to make a special picture.

**Lisa Bueno** (1:05)
That's right. So today's story is going to talk about how important, yep, that's art is.
You see, this story is about a little girl who lived a long time ago and she was a girl who is-

**SPEAKER_4** (1:24)
She was living at the time of slavery.

**Lisa Bueno** (1:26)
Yep. She was living in the time of slavery and she was enslaved.
And so her experience is going to be very, very different than your experience or the experience of really anyone who's listening to this story. Because we don't live in slavery right now. If you-

**Philip** (1:48)
And usually at that time, white people thought that they were better than black people and poor black people.

**Lisa Bueno** (1:55)
That's correct. Any person who treats another person like they are superior is wrong.

**Philip** (2:02)
Yeah.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:02)
Because we are all equal.

**Philip** (2:05)
There's another good thing that happened. The US banned slavery from the US.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:17)
Yes.

**Philip** (2:17)
If you live in the US slavery is banned, but similar places in the world aren't so lucky.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:26)
In America, it is illegal to have slaves.

**Philip** (2:30)
If you're a really rich guy, you can have a butler, but you still have to pay them so they can have money. Uh-huh.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:37)
And they can leave your service if they want to.

**Philip** (2:40)
Yeah, but that's not the deal with slaves.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:42)
That's right. So keep that in mind as we read.

**Philip** (2:46)
Butlers can use it.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:48)
Servants are different than slaves.

**Philip** (2:52)
Okay.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:53)
Are you ready?
Today's story, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, was written by Deborah Hopkinson, and the paintings are by James Ransom. It's read today by Mommy and?

**Philip** (3:04)
Philip.

**Lisa Bueno** (3:05)
Mommy and Philip.

**Philip** (3:06)
And fun fact, this is a Juneteenth story.

**Lisa Bueno** (3:09)
It is. Here we go.
Before I was even 12 years old, I got sent from North Farm to Home Plantation because they needed another field hand. When I got there, I cried so much. They thought I was never going to eat or drink again. I didn't want to leave my mama.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:32)
I'm going back to work.

**Lisa Bueno** (3:34)
I whispered every day to Young Jack, who worked beside me in the fields.
Well, you better start eating all you can, Sweet Clara. He smiled at me, but then his smile was gone. And in a low voice, he say, or else you won't make it.
Young Jack helped me believe I'd get back to my mama someday. Truth was, I'd be lost before I got through the fields, them being so big and all, but I didn't give up dreaming.
And in the picture, we can see the girl who is telling us her story, and we can also see her friend, Young Jack. They are picking cotton, which is grown on plants in a big field full of plants. They kind of look like little snowballs, but here's something you may not know. The little snowballs of fluffy cotton is in these dark brown thorns. And in order to get the soft fluffy cotton out of those dark brown thorns, you have to reach down inside of them, and the thorns can poke at you, and it can be very painful.
Aunt Rachel is raising me now.
She wasn't my for real blood aunt, but she did her best to care for me.
One night, she came back from working in the big house and found me lying dead tired on our cabin floor. She shook her head and said, Sweet Clara, you ain't gonna last in the fields, but I got an idea. Aunt Rachel's idea was sowing, and she started teaching me that very night. It wasn't easy for me to learn. My hands were already rough and clumsy from hoeing and weeding in the fields, so Aunt Rachel took it real slow. She brought scraps of cloth from the big house and taught me about each one, how it was special and how to be treated in its own way. A lot to piece the scraps together to make pretty patterns of colors. But Aunt Rachel didn't care much about pretty patterns. Now you ripped up that whole row and do it again, Clara. She's say, why I gotta make the stitches so tiny? I complained, you're gonna be a real seamstress. That's why. In the picture, we can see the Aunt Rachel teaching Sweet Clara how to understand fabric and how fabric works well and how you would make tiny stitches in order to make things look very nice. She's teaching her an important skill set. Tomorrow, you're gonna come with me to the big house. I got it all worked out. Aunt Rachel said one day, I was frightened. You ready to sew with me? She went on, Mrs. Dada, Ella's be getting married come spring. I told Mrs. I'd be needing help. She look at your work with sharp eyes, Clara.