A Girl Named Charity

By Francine C. Still Hicks

Young Charity Still has one wish. She longs to be free, just like the guinea hen from her ancestral land of West Africa. She wants to be strong and free to roam the land. Instead, she is a slave, one of many on the Steele plantation in Maryland. Its the only life shes ever known.

Growing up before the Emancipation Proclamation becomes law, her world consists of picking cotton, beans, and corn in the hot fields and slopping the pigs. She mourns the death of her mother, survives the influenza running rampant through the slave quarters, endures beatings for her mistakes, and experiences being sold to a new owner. Through it all, Charity dreams of freedom and what it might mean.

Based on a true story, this picture book for young children puts a personal face on the history of slavery. It teaches that whatever the circumstances in lifegood or bad, joyful or painfulthey can be overcome. Its important to have, hope, faith, and belief in yourself that the spirit within will provide the strength to overcome any obstacle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Feb 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504327244

Francine C. Still Hicks

Francine C. Still Hicks studied commercial art at the Art Instructional School in Minnesota. She coordinated and directed an art and poetry exhibit for the local Amnesty International chapter. Hicks was selected to begin a campaign through coloring and activities books against drugs and violence in the county schools.

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Copyright © 2015 Francine C. Still Hicks.

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ISBN: 978-1-5043-2723-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-2724-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015902604

Balboa Press rev. date: 02/20/2015

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Well hello, and thank you for coming to visit! My name is Charity Still and I am happy to know you. If you have some time, I hope you will spend it with me. My life is probably quite different from yours, because I was born over one hundred and fifty years ago, into a family of slaves in the state of Maryland. They called us slaves, because at that time we were considered to be the property of other people.

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