Module 4 Book Review: The Freedom Business

Module 4 Poetry Book Review
The Freedom Business: A Narrative of the Life & Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa by Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Deborah Dancy
Diana Stephens
Poetry 5663

The title, The Freedom Business: A Narrative of the Life & Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, emphasizes this little book’s major theme—that is, the business of buying and selling people. Marilyn Nelson resurrects this little known primary source account, the only one to document both the capture in Africa and life as an American slave. The story of Venture (even his name connotes business) Smith, born Broteer Furro, a firstborn Prince of Dukandarra, was first published in 1798, and is a fascinating read by itself. Nelson’s interpretive poetry is placed on the right side of the page, with the narrative account on the left, and both are amplified by the sepia toned colors of brief, faded images by Deborah Dancy.

In general, I liked the narrative and the illustrations better than the poems. I went instantly to Google to read about the author, and discovered that she is well known and famous as the poet laureate of Connecticut. Then I read the reviews and found them lauding her poetry in this book, and thought, well, fine, I guess I am not as ready to review poetry books as I claimed to be in my just-submitted portfolio.

I couldn’t stop reading the narrative; it was horrific, what the man saw and suffered as a child and as an adult. That he tried to maintain his integrity, but was continually, throughout his life, abused and ripped off by white and black alike, was stunning, and I kept looking for the bitterness, which did not materialize much, only lamentation: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” I kept wondering how he, who had been bought and sold, could continue to buy, with the desire to reap financially, his fellow black man. Each time, the ‘venture’ was unsuccessful. !!!

I found much of the free verse poetry not very poetic. In fact, the poetry often sounds just like prose: “Freeing people is good business, in principle. /You’d think they’d thank you for sixty percent /of their earnings while they repay your capital /investment,” etc. This, the last poem of the 25, contains a list, (second verse) of the three people freed by Venture, “The first person I freed cost sixty pounds, /and had repaid twenty when the fellow /stole away by night.” The third verse lists his children that he freed, again, in terms of their cost to him, “My son Solomon (seventy-five pounds) /sent on a whaler, his young life cut short /by scurvy.” The last line, “Freedom’s a matter of making history, /of venturing forth toward a time when freedom is free,” contains alliteration that helps it rise to poetic thought; however, it still feels and sounds a little trite. The theme is better stated in the last line of the second verse, “Frankly, the reward /for freeing people is a broken heart,” which makes the calculating tone understandable. Still, the prose moved me more than the poem.

Several poems did do justice to the narrative, such as “Forty-two Perfect Days,” perhaps because it contained rhythm, rhyme, imagery, and figurative language: “Like an infection which destroys /a flower beautiful and rare, /an invading army, with powdered hair, /with trumpets, muskets, and glass beads, /with lace cuffs, rum, with new-grown greeds; /like a wave of fire, like a wind all flame, /like a plague of locusts: the slavers came.” The rhythm of the lines, longer at the end of the poem than at the beginning, give the feeling of an army approaching from a distance, getting closer and closer, with the evil (appropriately compared to infection, army, fire, and a plague of locusts) released in the last three words, “the slavers came.” This one was very well done, powerful.

Deborah Dancy’s illustrations pull the book together and create a unified work. The sepia tones evoke earthy images, reminiscent of the drabness of a slave’s life. There were repeated images of chains, nooses, ropes, sticks, thorns, vines, ferns, and many splotchy places creating an old view, through time, of the pages. This adds much sad, but enduring emotion to the whole reading experience.

Nelson and Dancy have brought forth an important, creative, yet historical addition to the heritage of African Americans and all Americans. I am grateful; students will be, too, once we do our job and bring attention to it.

Nelson, Marilyn. (2008). The Freedom Business: A Narrative of the Life & Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa. Illustrated by Deborah Dancy. Honesdale, Pennsylvania: Wordsong.