Freewater Summary
Amina Luqman-Dawson

Freewater Overview

Freewater is a novel set in the South during the time of slavery. Its primary settings are a plantation named Southerland and a fictional community of escaped slaves named Freewater that exists in the swamps outside of Southerland. It is a middle grade novel of historical fiction. It is largely written in the third person perspective of the numerous slaves, both still enslaved and escaped, but it is also written at times from the first person point of view of the protagonist, Homer. Through the novel, the people at Freewater make decisions that help them grow in wisdom and courage as the children of Freewater ultimately help more slaves escape. Key themes in the novel include the ways that people see the world, choosing the group over the individual, the primacy of parent-child relationships, the importance of proving oneself, and the role slavery plays in taking away the voices of people in the system.