This reminded me quite a lot of ‘Buffalo Soldier’ by Tanya Landman (the 2015 CILIP Carnegie winner) as it focuses on a child gaining freedom in Southern America, but it has a more warm-hearted feel in many ways.
When Samuel is sold as a slave he isn’t sure why. He knows he trusts in God, but can’t work out where he is or what is happening to him. We follow him on his journey to his new home, where we gain some insight into the lives of slaves. I felt this was, to a degree, quite sanitised – Samuel is lucky enough to end up bought at auction by a fairly progressive plantation owner. The experience of Samuel was probably not common to many of the time, though there are some graphic descriptions that might be off-putting for younger readers.
Over time Samuel teaches the slaves of the house to read. There is talk of freedom, but things don’t quite turn out as they expect. Eventually Samuel finds his way back to his brother, and there is a wonderful closing scene where he is reunited with some characters from earlier in the novel and we gain a small sense of the hope, optimism and fear that these newly-emancipated people would have experienced.
With such subject matter it seems odd to describe this as an enjoyable read, but it drew me in and I thoroughly enjoyed it.