Title: Run To Freedom — An 18th Century Jamaican Adventure Story

Author: Dawn Forrester Price

Reviewed by: Andrene Bonner

“The guaranteeing of man’s basic freedoms and rights requires courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and act — and if necessary, to suffer and die — for truth and justice.”

— Emperor Haile Selassie,
The First of Ethiopia

This quotation pulses throughout the novel
Run To Freedom: An 18th Century Jamaican Adventure Story and its sequel,
Hinterland. Dawn Forrester Price takes cues from her considerable experience as an educator and theatre practitioner to deliver intense drama and to contextualise history in these novels. The first book in the series centres on an enslaved teenage boy, Kofi, who is determined to fulfil his murdered father’s dream of freeing his family. Kofi becomes a target of the chief watcher who puts secret plantation agents in place to thwart his quest for freedom.

“You have a good life here on McDermott’s Plantation. We feed you, clothe you and provide shelter for you. All you are expected to do is put in a fair day’s work,” says Massa McDermott before whipping him with the cat-o-nine after his first attempt to escape.

The chief watcher assigns the local griot to rehabilitate Kofi in the ways of the plantation. “I don’t want to see you dead before you get a chance to live,” is a puissant warning echoed by the griot.

Kofi rejects the Griot’s counsel. Rooted in his consciousness is the lesson from his father, Kwame, that he has a right to freedom. Notwithstanding the risk, Kofi stages a sophisticated and dangerous escape, taking his sister Prudence with him to the land of the Maroons. His mother Dorcas doesn’t take the journey. Forrester Price uses this turn in the plot to frame some differences between the younger and the older enslaved, and the necessary role each plays in the struggle for freedom.

As readers, we need to look at Dorcas through different lenses. Her story gives the reader an opportunity to imagine the enslaved woman’s quiet strategy and “eternal vigilance” vital for survival on the plantation. Where one would say she’s risk averse and afraid of death, one should instead consider her pragmatism and self-awareness. Confinement complicates her situation, and she is aware of the nuances. As a skilled “doctress,” she knows her death will undermine the delicate balance within the slave community.

Illness is an ever-present threat among the enslaved. Gruesome labour takes its toll, causing Dorcas to suffer from back pain. We can only imagine how the underfed and overworked enslaved aged at an alarming rate. Compounding that, she grieves her husband’s murder. Frantz Fanon’s writings on trauma and Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s landmark study
On Death and Dying give us a window into the psychological complexity Dorcas may be experiencing. Kubler Ross’s study reveals the five stages of grief. We find Dorcas stuck in the stage of depression, and emotionally, light years away from the final stage of acceptance. Most times, depression is inadequate in describing the plight of the enslaved. However, we have seen the effects of depressive episodes in modern life.

Dorcas understands that it is near impossible to raise children in slavery and watch them thrive because they are not her own to protect — they belong to the Massa. Bob Marley observes centuries later, “For every time I plant a seed, he said kill them before they grow.” Kofi’s determination to run away from slave life and the merciless public floggings would worry any mother. Fortunately for us, Forrester Price acknowledges this paradox and allows Dorcas’ strength of character to drive the next significant action in the series plot.

NEXT WEEK: A review of the sequel:
Hinterland

ANDRENE BONNER is a US-based Jamaican educator, playwright, and award-winning author of a literacy fiction series, four non-fiction books about student resilience, full-length cultural dramas on African American and Caribbean history, and a book of poetry. Bonner has lectured on Race, Class, Culture and Resistance, Parent-Student-Teacher Partnership, Linguistic Variations: What Makes Our Students Linguistically Diverse and How Do We Teach Them English, and Re-Imagining Literacy in Physical Education. She is the founder of Literacy Gateway Institute (LGI), where she develops curricula and wellness tools. She created the LGI Co-Teaching Model and runs a Parent Co-Teaching Bootcamp for individuals and groups. She is an alumna of the Lincoln Center Education Learning Labs for Artists and Educators, a member of the International Women’s Writing Guild (IWWG), and serves on the governing board of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars (ACWWS).