Laurie Halse Anderson's Blog, page 7

The kind librarians of New York State are honoring me with the Empire State Award! 

(I was going to add videos of Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, and Alicia Keys and Jay-Z singing about New York, but I can’t get them to embed. Any ideas way it won’t work? Maybe a New York Superhero Librarian knows why!)

I got up early to enjoy the sunrise, a cup of coffee, and the Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr.

And then an unexpected visitor showed up.

Oh, for heavens sakes.

A guy named Richard Swier in Florida thinks that SPEAK is “child pornography.”

I wish I were making that up.

SPEAK is cautionary tale about the emotional aftermath of rape. It tackles bullying, depression, rape, sexual harassment, and family dysfunction. It teaches children that when bad things happen, they need to speak up, even when it’s hard. It has given hope to tens of thousands of readers since 1999. It is a standard in curriculum across the country.

Swier’s quest would be laughable except that there are a couple of uninformed people who think that he knows what he’s talking about. Since he has picked apart my work, let me return the favor.

In this “article” (and I use that term loosely), Dick tries the fan the flames of horror. 

(Note to people who want to burn my book but can’t be bothered to read it in order to track down the swear words. Swier has done your job for you, complete with page references. Great job, Dick!)

Dick is a Tea Party activist. He has a lot of fascinating opinions. Writing for the Tea Party Nation in 2011, he said “The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) population in America is headed for extinction and with it our economy, well-being and survival as a uniquely America culture.”

Dick says the bullying of LGBT kids is not bullying, “It is peer pressure and is healthy. There are many bad behaviors such as smoking, under age drinking and drug abuse that are behaviors that cannot be condoned. Homosexuality falls into this category. Homosexuality is simply bad behavior that youth see as such and rightly pressure their peers to stop it.”

He also thinks that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the White House.

A round of applause, please, for the review committee at Laurel Nokomis School in Sarasota County, Florida, who, according to their policy, reviewed the book and decided to keep it.

The challenge now moves to the district level.

I have a conflicted relationship with George Washington. This bubbles to the surface every time I see someone misattribute a quote to him on Facebook, or misstate facts about his changing attitudes about sundry and various things, or pass along bald-faced lies.

Having read way too many books about him and the context of his era, in addition to spending years studying his letters, I have to say that I really, really like George.

He pulled together an army out of scraps of other men’s dreams and his own ambition. He was an incredible leader, a commanding officer whom his men looked up to and admired. He had a fierce temper which he kept under control… most of the time. He was ruthless when the situation demanded it. He listened to advisors. He battled America’s political leaders in his ongoing efforts to feed, clothe, and pay his troops. He was bold. Patient. A great dancer. Apparently his calves were so well-defined that when ladies got an eye-full of them tastefully decked out in fashionably thin stockings, they’d swoon. He loved his family. He had dental problems. He believed in self-sacrifice.

America would not exist without him. I believe he is the key, irreplaceable Founding Father.

But Washington defies bumper stickers and memes. You can’t boil him down to a slogan or two because HE CHANGED HIS MIND about several critical issues. This might be what I love about him the most. His experiences during the Revolution changed him, particularly the way he looked upon African-Americans and the institution of slavery.

I posted the meme above about Washington owning slaves on Tumblr on July 3rd. Most people acknowledged the painful hypocrisy. But I was stunned by the people who rushed in to snarl at me. They insisted that Washington had freed his slaves after the Revolution, or that they were never his slaves at all, they belonged to Martha, and… and….

It is hard to admit that a man whom so many admire had a lot of ugliness in his life. But it’s time to get over our squeamishness and deal with the facts.

1. George Washington became a slave owner at age 11, when he inherited ten slaves from his father. He inherited eight more a decade later from his brother. He bought and sold slaves on his own account and became responsible for the lives (and profits) of the slaves who belonged to his wife, Martha. (George did not own her slaves directly; he had to manage them, along with the property of Martha’s first husband, as a sort of trust for Martha’s children and grandchildren.)

2. Washington had slaves whipped, chained, and sold off to the brutal slave owners in the Caribbean.  (Note to haters: there is primary source documentation for this in the form of Washington’s letters and account books. Don’t waste your time and mine in the comment section by calling me names. Deal with it, OK?)

There is conflicting evidence about how he treated his slaves outside of punishments. Some letters written by visitors to Washington’s estates describe him as a harsh master, others describe him as more gentle than most.

3. From 1759-1772 George Washington bought at least 42 slaves. The number of people he owned increased beyond this as his slaves had families.

4. The American Revolution dramatically changed the way that Washington viewed African-Americans and the institution of slavery. I cannot emphasize this enough.

Before the War, Washington was a typical white Virginian, upper class slave owner. Reading his letters in which he talks about selling people, punishing them, etc. will churn your stomach.

During the War he experienced first-hand the number of African-Americans who were willing to fight for the Patriot Army, for the nation’s freedom and their own. At first, Washington did not want any men of color joining the Continental Army. He changed his mind.

Ten percent of the soldiers at Valley Forge were African-American men. (The source for this statistic is the Continental Army’s own head count.) Most of those were free black men. A few were slaves who had run away to join the army. Other were slaves who were forced to serve in the place of the man who owned them. There is plenty of documentation of slaves who were promised their freedom by their masters if they served in the army, and then had their owners renege on the deal.

Conversations with white aides who believed in freeing slaves, notably the Marquis de Lafayette and aide-de-camp John Laurens also helped Washington change his mind about the morality of slavery.

(John Laurens was the son of Henry Laurens, who was the fifth president of the Continental Congress and one of the richest men in America. Henry Laurens owned hundreds of slaves. He made a fortune kidnapping Africans, transporting them across the Atlantic and selling them into slavery. From 1749 – 1762 his company, Austin & Laurens, sold more than 10,000 human beings. His son John, in contrast, thought slavery was immoral and pushed hard to be allowed to form a regiment from South Carolina of African-American men who would be given their freedom in exchange for joining the military. His plan was ridiculed and defeated.)

The other factor in Washington’s change of heart was his travels through the Mid-Atlantic and New England states during the war. Washington was a practical farmer who grew up only seeing large-scale farming performed by slaves. North of Virginia he saw well-managed farms that were run using only paid labor. This opened his eyes.

As a result of all of this, Washington decided that he would never buy or sell another slave. At that point he owned 105 people outright, and he managed the additional 111 who were owned by Martha (that was the trust I mentioned earlier).

5. In his will, Washington freed all the slaves that he owned and made sure that they would be cared for and supported as they adjusted to their lives as free people. When he died he owned 123 people and Martha owned 153. He could not free the slaves owned by Martha’s first husband’s estate because of Virginia law.

The language in George Washington’s will is fascinating and incredibly specific. He went to great lengths to make sure that Martha’s four grandchildren – who he knew would be super unhappy at not inheriting his slaves – could not break the will. Washington made sure that the child slaves he owned would be bound out to learn trades, and to learn how to read and write. Those children were to all be given their complete freedom when they reached age twenty-five.

I hate the fact that Washington was a slave owner. I hate that he and most of the other Founding Fathers participated in slavery. I am furious that they didn’t have the balls to write a Constitution that freed all Americans, instead of just freeing the white ones.

But I’m proud of George for being man enough to learn, grow, and change. That’s why he’s my favorite Beatle Founding Father.

In my experience, many white people don’t know how to talk about this stuff. Some don’t even know about it. That’s part of the reason I wrote CHAINS and FORGE and it’s why I am working so hard on ASHES. (No, I don’t have a publication date for ASHES yet. Stay tuned!)

Because I love America and I am a big history nerd, I go fifty extra miles in my research to ensure that my fictional stories are well-grounded in historical evidence. That’s why I have four historians review every book for accuracy before we go to press.

What do you think about George Washington? How do you make peace with his positive contributions to American history versus his slave owning and lack of participation in the post-Revolution abolition movement?

PS – Of our first eighteen Presidents, thirteen of them were slaveowners. (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Buchanan, Johnson, and Grant) Did you know that? If not, how does that change the way you think about how you were taught history?

Resources:

Presidents and Slaves: Helping Students Find the Truth, a teaching activity by Bob Peterson posted on the Zinn Education Project website.

Mount Vernon has a page devoted to Washington and his slaves.

Take this quiz to find out more about our early presidents and slavery.

“Are U.S. History Textbooks Still Full of Lies and Half-Truths?” article on George Mason University’s History News Network website, written by Ray Raphael.

Henry Laurens and The British Slave Trade to Charleston S.C.

I’m headed to Chicago for the American Library Association Conference!

On Friday I’ll be speaking on panels at the YALSA pre-conference and on Saturday I’ll be signing books at the Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster booths.

Can’t wait to see everyone!

I try to use this website as the place where you can find all the answers to your questions about my books and my life. (If you have a question that you can’t find answered here, let me know what you need to know in the comment section.)

The Poetry Question just published an interview with me that contains BRAND NEW SHINY QUESTIONS!

Enjoy!

For the last week I have been a lucky writer holed up at the Kindling Words West writing retreat in Taos, New Mexico. There are 25 of us here. Every morning we get to listen to the wise and wonderful Nikki Grimes teach us about the power of poetry. The rest of the day is spent working. And eating. Because writing can make a body very, very hungry.

Our retreat is being held at the historic gathering place for creative people, the Mable Dodge Luhan House.

I slept in the Ansel Adams room, named because Ansel Adams slept there whenever he was in town. If you want me to tell you about my visit from Ansel’s ghost, buy me a glass of wine the next time you see me. A nice merlot will do the trick. (That is the final revision of my new YA spread out on the floor and bedspread, btw.)

This is my gorgeous window that looks out onto Taos Mountain, part of the Taos Pueblo.

The view out that window… this picture doesn’t come close to the beauty of the mountain.

Every morning I got up in the dark, meditated, then worked on trying the draw the way the first light looked coming over the mountain. After breakfast, I put in long hours on my last revision, loving every minute of it.

There is something magical that happens when a group of creative kindred spirits comes together to write and draw and play. Combine that magic with a location like Taos, with raven and magpie calls in the air, butterflies floating by, and a landscape that takes your breath away, and you will understand why this is the first time I have not been a total grumpy-pants during a final revision.

I have to leave the retreat early for a graduation this weekend, so this morning I played hooky and went hiking with two old writer buddies.

We went to Carson National Forest and hiked for a couple of hours up to Devisadero Peak.

Cactus are starting to bloom up there.

 The views were so beautiful I am only going to post this one because I don’t want all of you to sell everything you own and move to Taos tomorrow.

 This is my favorite pic of the 7000 I’ve taken this week. What does it say to you?

Proof that we made it to the top. Elevation: 8,340 feet.

There is this kick-ass cairn on top of the mountain and stone chairs and some delightful trees. And maybe auras, but I was oxygen deprived, so don’t quote me on that. We hiked back down and had breakfast outside a cafe enjoying the tanagers and nuthatches and ravens. OMG I cannot get enough of ravens.

Please don’t think that this past week is what a writer’s life is like. I’ve been a writer for twenty years and this is my first week like this. But it is NOT going to be twenty years until I do this again. Good friends, good work, good food all in a part of the world I’d never seen before; that is an inspiring and invigorating combination.

Thank you, Taos! Thank you, New Mexico! Thank you, ravens!

Guess which piece of office equipment I want to throw in the road and drive over ten million times with Husband’s monster pick-up truck?

Read the entire comic at The Oatmeal.

I will happily drive over your printer, too, if you’d like.

There has long been, erm, ‘conversations’ about the original TWISTED cover. This is a book about a sweet, confused teenage boy whose father is an asshole and whose life is quickly going down the toilet. It’s a story about false accusations, lies, love and suicide.

Is that the spirit that this cover evokes?

No, I didn’t think so.

I never liked this cover. (Note: it doesn’t matter if an author likes a cover or not. Our job is to write a great book. End. Of. Story.)

But there is good news! Last year Penguin redesigned the covers of CATALYST and PROM. Now it’s TWISTED’s turn.

Drum roll, please…

The new cover should be available in stores in September.

What do you think?

PS – Are you following the discussions of gendered book covers started by Maureen Johnson? There are lots of great examples posted on Tumblr. I’d love to hear your thoughts on that, too.