Seeking Freedom: The Untold Story of Fortress Monroe and the Ending of Slavery in America [Hardcover]

In this dramatic Civil War story, a courageous enslaved fugitive teams with a cunning Union general to save a Union fort from the Confederates–and triggers the end of slavery in the United States. This is the first children's nonfiction book about a Black unsung hero who remains relevant today and to the Black Lives Matter movement. 

On the night Virginia secedes from the Union, three enslaved men approach Fortress Monroe. Knowing that Virginia's secession meant they would be separated from their families and sent farther south to work for the Confederacy, the men decided to plead for sanctuary. And they were in luck.
 
The fort's commander, Benjamin Butler, retained them--and many more that followed--by calling them contraband of war.  Butler depended on the contrabands to provide information about the Confederates. He found the perfect partner in George Scott, one of the contrabands, whose heroism saved the fort from enemy hands. And, it was the plight of the contrabands that convinced President Lincoln that slavery MUST be abolished and inspired him to write his Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in the rebellious states.ALSC Notable Children's Book
CCBC Choices 2023
A New York Public Library Best Book for Kids 
Bank Street Best Book of the Year

★  Besides telling [George] Scott’s dramatic story, the narrative highlights [Benjamin] Butler’s pivotal decision to regard people who escaped slavery as contraband—a legal strategy enabling the U.S. Army to protect them. With a muted palette featuring grays, greens, browns, and pale, tawny yellows, Lewis creates a series of haunting watercolor paintings that make Scott’s sl3)