Freewater is a children's novel by Amina Luqman-Dawson which was published by Little Brown and Company in 2022. It is targeted toward middle-grade readers and tells a story about a little-known piece of slave-owning history in America. The focus is placed upon those people held in slavery by plantation owners in the South who managed to escape and create their secret community rather than making the dangerous attempt to flee to the North.
The real-life historical context of this fictional tale is the story of the Great Dismal Swamp maroons found in the swampy areas of Dixie among those Confederate states bordering the Atlantic Ocean. The natural dangers present in the swampland also served as effective protective devices against those searching for escaped slaves. The first notable fictional presentation of this aspect of slave life was told by none other than Harriet Beecher Stowe in her 1856 novel, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp which would eventually be outsold among her works only by the legendary Uncle Tom’s Cabin. While Stowe’s take on the Great Dismal Swamp maroons was targeted to adult readers in a story featuring adult characters, Luqman-Dawson’s book is not just targeted to kids but features children as the primary characters. This includes not just characters who are escaped slaves but also the young daughter of the slaveowner who defies every aspect of the society in which she was raised to help facilitate these escape attempts.
Freewater met with near-universal critical acclaim upon release. The book won its author the Coretta Scott King Award—which recognizes outstanding literary works for young readers that reflect the African-American experience—in 2023. That same year witnessed the book taking home the most prestigious literary honor for all books written for children and young adults, the Newbery Medal. Freewater has persistently been a four-star review favorite on Goodreads and maintains a rating above 4.5 on Amazon. Kirkus Reviews labels the book “an exceptional addition to the resistance stories of enslaved people." The critical raves have been matched by commercial success as well with Freewater becoming a New York Times Bestseller.
