I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly, page 12
“These questions couldn’t be answered, for Holmes never again mentioned Ann in her diary. But I tucked Ann away in a corner of my mind and thought that maybe someday I’d create a character based on her. Three years later, I found the chance to bring her to life in this story of Patsy, a freed girl. Of course, as the diary progressed, Patsy took on a life of her own and answered all of those questions I’d once had about Ann.
“Although I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly is fictional, the details are based on the diaries, journals, oral histories, and narratives of people who lived through those tumultuous times. The catechism that Patsy hated was an actual ‘slave catechism.’ But it was the description of the lame, timid, friendless girl that truly fired my imagination.”
Ms. Hansen has been writing for young people for the past seventeen years. Until recently, she lived and worked in New York City, where she was born. A public school teacher of English and creative writing for twenty-two years, she now writes full time in South Carolina, where she lives with her husband. And even though she has retired from teaching, she says, “I still feel like a teacher, and when I write, I hear my students’ voices, warning me not to be boring.”
Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to use the following:
Cover portrait by Tim O’Brien.
Cover background: Plantation Burial by John Antrobus, Historic New Orleans Collection, accession no: 1960.46, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Children at rural cabin, Library of Congress.
Laundresses, Onondaga Historical Society, Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse, New York.
African Americans working in cotton fields, stereograph, PR-065-0662-0002, New-York Historical Society, New York, New York.
Oxcart with freed people, Library of Congress.
Public wedding of freed people, ibid.
Meeting of Freedmen’s Bureau, ibid.
Classroom of school for freed people, ibid.
Title page of The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York, New York.
Ku Klux Klan letter, Library of Congress.
Portrait of Phillis Wheatley, ibid.
“Free At Last,” from Songs of the Civil War, compiled and edited by Irwin Silber, Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, New York.
Lyrics from “Free At Last,” ibid.
Recipe for hard gingerbread, from Early American Cookery: “The Good Housekeeper,” by Sarah Josepha Hale, ibid.
First black United States Congressmen, Library of Congress.
Map by Jim McMahon.
Map by Heather Saunders.
Other books in the Dear America series
Copyright
While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Patsy is a fictional character, created by the author, and her diary and its epilogue are works of fiction.
Copyright © 1997 by Joyce Hansen.
Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi
Cover portrait by Tim O’Brien, © 2011 Scholastic Inc.
Cover background: Plantation Burial by John Antrobus, Historic New Orleans Collection
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, DEAR AMERICA, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the earlier hardcover edition as follows:
Hansen, Joyce. I thought my soul would rise and fly: the diary of Patsy, a freed girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865 / by Joyce Hansen. p. cm. — (Dear America; 6) Summary: Twelve-year-old Patsy keeps a diary of the ripe but confusing time following the end of the Civil War and the granting of freedom to former slaves. ISBN 0-590-84913-1 (alk. paper) 1. Afro-Americans — History — 1863–1877 — Juvenile fiction. 2. Reconstruction — Juvenile fiction. 3. United States-History — 1865–1898 — Juvenile fiction. [1. Afro-Americans — History — 1863–1877 — Fiction. 2. Reconstruction — Fiction. 3. United States – History — 1865–1898 — Fiction. 4. Diaries — Fiction.] I. Title. II. Series PZ7. H1933Iaj 1997 [Fic] — dc21 LC#: 97-2170 CIP AC
This edition first printing, July 2011
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eISBN: 978-0-545-38900-6
Joyce Hansen, I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly
