TOW #3: Curtis Freedom by Anna Haverly

Anna Haverly is a thirteen year old girl from Mancos, Colorado.  Although just a young teenager, she has been published, and is even the author of the featured story of the month, in Stone Soup, a magazine with illustrations and stories written by children.  Since she’s a kid, she’s not very credible.  However, in her story, Curtis Freedom, she makes sure to include factual evidence to support the plot, making her have some credibility.  Up until slavery was abolished in 1865 due to the Thirteenth Amendment, it was common in America, and Harriet Tubman was an escaped slave who managed to free other slaves, just as she does for Curtis in the story.  Curtis is a twelve year old boy who’s a slave that dreams of freedom.  He was separated from his parents and hopes to be with them again, especially his father.  He travels with Tubman to Canada, where he finally reunites with his father and his freedom that he wanted for so long is granted.  By portraying Curtis’ journey, Haverly’s purpose is clearly to entertain her audience, a general one of all ages, with a story about hope, freedom, and a young boy’s search for his father.  In order to achieve her purpose of entertaining readers, which she does accomplish, Haverly appeals to pathos, uses a comparison, uses a second person point-of-view, and uses dialogue.  Haverly makes the audience feel bad for Curtis by portraying him as a slave who is subject to harsh treatment and has been separated from his family.  The hope that he has to be free and find his family gets transferred to the readers as they start to wish the same for him.  Haverly also includes a comparison of Harriet Tubman to Moses because they both freed slaves.  This comparison made a lot of sense and is very intriguing.  The second person point-of-view helps Haverly entertain the audience because it makes it possible to show the movements of all of the involved and not just have Curtis’ thoughts.  By using those rhetorical devices, Haverly writes a story entertaining to all readers.  

African American Child Slaves

http://blackamericaweb.com/120552/little-known-black-history-fact-plantation-games/