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The Fiddling for Freedom series is inspired by the life of African-American slave and pioneer, Louis Southworth, who traveled the Oregon Trail with his mother and master in the early 1850s and then went on to earn enough money to buy his freedom by playing fiddle in the gold camps in California and Nevada. This series (for middle-grade readers) presents Louis's adventures in three books. The first... More

The Fiddling for Freedom series is inspired by the life of African-American slave and pioneer, Louis Southworth, who traveled the Oregon Trail with his mother and master in the early 1850s and then went on to earn enough money to buy his freedom by playing fiddle in the gold camps in California and Nevada. This series (for middle-grade readers) presents Louis's adventures in three books. The first, "Slaveboy," covers the circumstances that lead Louis, his mother and master to begin the journey west, and takes them from the master's Missouri farm, to a steamboat on the Missouri river, and then to St. Joseph. The second book (available in the fall of 2012) picks up the story at the beginning of the Oregon Trail, and follows the group's wagon train west. Along the way, Louis learns how to play fiddle, makes some unexpected friends, and has some narrow escapes from danger. The third book (available spring of 2013) brings the story full circle and follows Louis to the wild gold camps in Northern California where he earns his freedom not by panning for gold, but by doing the sure thing, entertaining the prospectors with his music-making.

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