Teaching About the Black Experience through Chains and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing

Introduction

It is estimated that over 25,000 Blacks served in the American Revolutionary War. Of these, 20,000, many who had escaped enslavement, served on the British side, largely due to Dunmore’s Proclamation that promised emancipation for “Negroes” who “joined his Majesty’s troops.”[1] An estimated 5,000 to 8,000 served on the American side, some as fighters, some in support roles and some in the navy.[2] On the American side, some Blacks served because they were enlisted by their enslavers while others, who were free, believed in the cause of liberty and states’ independence from British rule. Blacks represented 4 percent of those who served in support of the effort to gain independence, as gunners, sailors, privateers, waggoners, cooks, artisans, waiters,[3] and even, in the case of James Armistead Lafayette, spies.[4]

While the recorded history of the Black experience and contributions to the war is limited, it is important to have an awareness of the role that African Americans, both enslaved and free, played on both sides. One way to gain such knowledge and insight is through literature, such as two novels written particularly for young adult readers: Chains, the first book of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Seeds of America triology, and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1 – The Pox Party, book one of a duology by M. T. Anderson.[5] This article provides an overview of the novels and Reader Response Questions to help students delve deeper into the texts, and presents three additional teaching strategies supported by examples of each that teachers can use directly or adapt to their own teaching context.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Set in New York at the time of the American Revolution, Chains spans May 27, 1776 to January 19, 1777. As the novel opens, the young teenage protagonist, Isabel, is optimistic about her future as her owner, Miss Mary Finch, has died and had let Isabel know beforehand that she and her five-year old sister Ruth would be free upon her passing. Unfortunately, no lawyer is present to produce the will that shows Miss Finch’s wishes. Mr. Robert Finch, Mary’s nephew and only surviving relative, has come to claim Isabel and Ruth and accuses Isabel of lying about the will. He proceeds to sell Isabel and her sister to Elihu and Anne Lockton from New York. The couple are Loyalists, and while Mrs. Lockton treats Ruth as a kind of pet that she shows off to friends she entertains, she treats Isabel, whom she refers to as “Sal,” in a harsh and degrading fashion, always showing her disfavor.

Isabel has two aims: to protect her sister and to gain freedom. She lives in fear that the Locktons will sell Ruth and thus separate them. At one point Mrs. Lockton provides sweets to them, something that was unusual. But she had laced them with something to make Isabel fall into a deep sleep. When Isabel awakens she learns that Mrs. Lockton has sold Ruth into slavery in the West Indies. This crushes Isabel, who is unable to escape due to constant monitoring by the Locktons.

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While doing errands in town for Mrs. Lockton, Isabel meets Curzon, a teenage slave of Mr. Bellingham, a Patriot. Curzon asks Isabel if she would be willing to spy on the Locktons to get information to the Patriots. Initially Isabel refuses, but then begins doing so. Mrs. Lockton finds out and punishes her by branding her cheek with an “I” for “insolence.” It takes Isabela six days to regain consciousness after the branding.

Mrs. Lockton makes Isabel care for Lady Seymour, Elihu’s aunt, who lives in town. As Isabel goes to town she is able to deliver messages about Loyalist activities to the Patriot soliders. Lady Seymour has compassion for Isabel, treating her with kindness and feeding her well. Her house burn in the great fire of New York (September 21, 1776), and Isabel saves her as well as a portrait of her husband and some letters that were dear to her. This becomes important late in the book as Lady Seymour, then an invalid and unable to speak, gestures to Isabel that she approves of her taking coins that she had saved.

The Locktons don’t recognize Isabel as intelligent, which works to her advantage when she is in the room delivering food or waiting for orders when Mr. Lockton is talking with other Loyalists. Isabel learns of the plot to kill Gen. George Washington and shares this with Patriots who come and arrest Mr. Lockton. However, he is soon released and later escapes by hiding in a barrel of cheese. Readers learn that Ruth has not been sold to the West Indies but rather sent to Charleston, South Carolina. Isabel plots her escape for the night that people are distracted by a celebration of Queen Charlotte of Great Britain’s birthday. Though Mrs. Lockton had Isabel locked in a potato bin during the ceremonies, she manages to dig her way out, find a pass and forge papers showing she is free.

Curzon, who had fought in battle for the Patriots, was shot in the leg and held at Bridewell as a prisoner of war. Isabel is able to see him by bribing the guards with food. On the night of her escape, she goes to Bridewell and says she was sent to clean the cells where “prisoners been dropping dead like flies. Fever.”[6] “Curzon lay insensible, his skin burning with fever, his eyes rolled up into his head. I called his name and pinched him, but he did not look my way nor speak a word.”[7] Isabel claims Curzon is dead, loads him in a wheelbarrow and covers him with a filthy blanket. The two manage to make it to the wharf and to a boat. “I rowed that river like it was a horse delivering me from the Devil. My hands blistered, the blisters popped, they re-formed and popped again. I rowed with my hands slick with blood … The sun rose beyond the water, at the other side of the river. I was on the west bank. I was in Jersey. I had set myself free.”[8] At this point Curzon awakes asking where they are, and Isabel replies “I think we just crossed the river Jordan.” The book ends with Isabel asking Curzon if he can walk and with an advertisement for the sequel Forge that gives the account of Isabel Gardner (formerly Sal Lockton) and companion Curzon Bellingham. [9]

The first teaching strategy for Chains is a set of ten questions designed to guide students in a close reading and deeper study of the novel. These questions may be used as the basis of class discussions, exams or essays.

Questions for Study and Discussion for Chains
1. How do Isabel’s and Curzon’s views of freedom differ in chapter 6? Also consider whether this changes as the novel progresses.
2. What evidence exists that Mr. Lockton is conspiring against the Patriots? Trace his journey from the point that he is arrested to the last mention of him.
3. In chapter 29 Isabel speaks of being “chained between two nations.” What does this mean?
4. Isabel’s grandfather speaks to her about the river Jordan in chapter 26, and in the last paragraph of the book, Isabel states “I think we just crossed the river Jordan.” What is the significance of the river Jordan?
5. Discuss the circumstances by which Isabel secures a copy of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in chapter 39. How does the pamphlet influence her in later chapters?
6. How does the author contrast Lady Seymour and Mrs. Lockton in chapter 41?
7. In what ways was the relationship between Isabel and Lady Seymour a reciprocal one where each benefited? Consider especially the events of chapters 31 and 44.
8. It may be said that at the time of Chains, both Isabel and America are rebellious, young, and conflicted. Explain.
9. Identify three scenes that you believe are the most important in Chains and explain why each is key to the novel.
10. The trilogy of which Chains is book one is called Seeds of America. What role do seeds play in the novel?

While these questions help to ensure close reading and provide opportunities to check for student understanding in a traditional way, the next activity engages students in a more creative, nontraditional manner as they use symbolic thinking and hands-on creativity.

Coat of Arms Overview and Instructions

A coat of arms is a visual design in the form of a shield, that goes back to Medieval days when families and communities used them to show their identity.[10] The coat of arms includes a motto or slogan that captures the important essence of the family, nation, school, or in our case, Chains. A coat of arms can be elaborate, including features such as “supporters” (visuals on each side of the shield) and “toppers” (one or more visuals at the top such as a crest, torse, helmet, or crown).

This assignment consists of three parts: 1) Pre-writing via the writing frames for the coat of arms;[11] 2) The visual coat of arms; 3) A paper that explains the symbols chosen in connection with the character the student chose from Chains. The basic format for the pre-writing is this statement:

“If (character name) were a(n) (e.g., object, word, emotion), he/she would be ______________ because __________________________________.

Table 1 shows an example of the pre-writing and the corresponding visual coat of arms follows in Table 2. Rather than including the paper explaining the visual coat of arms, there is a brief explanation below it.

Table 1: Writing Frames for the Coat of Arms

Note: The purpose of this pre-writing is to engage students in metaphorical thinking and help them generate ideas to use in their visual Coat of Arms. This example is for the character Isabel in Chains.

1. If Isabel were an object, she would be a calendar because through her days she reveals a story not only of her personal goings on but also the history of the American Revolution, key dates, events, battles, publications and people.
2. If Isabel were a word, she would be “remembery” because this is an example of her unique way of speaking as she combines “remember” and “memory.” Another example is “confuddled,” a combination of “confused” and “befuddled.” She knows how to read and write which works to her advantage as she is able to forge a pass indicating she is free.
3. If Isabel were an emotion, she would be determination because even when she could be depressed and hopeless, she stays focused on what is important to her – finding her sister Ruth and freedom.
4. If Isabel were a day of the week, she would be Tuesday because just when things look good, like when she’s overcome an obstacle, another presents itself. She has made some progress, but she’s not to over the hump of Wednesday yet. She still has the mountain to overcome and there is a sense that more serious challenges lay ahead than behind.
5. If Isabel were a color, she would be red which is a sign of strength and also of warning. Isabel has tremendous inner strength to be able to endure what she has and stay focused on finding her sister and gaining freedom. But she is also in perpetual danger as the Locktons oppress and threaten her and neither Patriots nor Loyalists have the best interest of Africans in mind.
6. If Isabel were a song, she would be the “Seed Song” because her deceased mother left her seeds as a promise of her future. The seed song specifies that water, air, warmth, soil and sunshine are necessary for a plant to grow.
7. If Isabel were an animal, she would be a fox because she is sly and smart and yet people are not afraid of her. Because it never occurs to Mr. Lockton that Isabel is intelligent and capable, he permits her to be in the room where he and other Loyalists plot against the Patriots, including the plot to kill Gen. George Washington. Isabel is able to deliver this information to the Continental Army without being found out by the Locktons.
8. If Isabel were a plant, she would be a cactus because she is able to endure harsh conditions and neglect. Like the spines of a cactus Isabel can be fierce as she was when she, with Curzon’s help, was able to subdue Mr. Bellingham.
9. If Isabel were a time of day, she would be early morning because her life is hard and she is not permitted the luxury of sleeping in. Her responsibility is to do for others. In another way Isabel may also be said to be morning because she is young and, if she is able to gain freedom, has much opportunity and promise ahead of her.
10. If Isabel were an article of clothing, she would be waterproof hiking boots because they can traverse many miles and maintain strength and utility.

Table 2: Visual Coat of Arms for Isabel

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1 – The Pox Party by M. T. Anderson

Set in 1775 Boston, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing is a highly unusual one. It tells the story of an African youth of sixteen who did not realize he was enslaved until age eight because he and his mother live with philosophers and scientists at the Novanglian College of Lucidity. Octavian studies the classics and violin and his mother Cassiopeia, regarded as an African princess, is highly esteemed for her intellect, musical ability, beauty and charm. The first half of the book is a “manuscript testimony” by Octavian himself that recounts his early life in the College and the people who live there, in particular Mr. Gitney, also known as 03-01, and Dr. Trefusis or 09-01. In time readers discover that the reason Octavian and Cassiopeia are the only ones who go by a name rather than a number is that they are the “experiment” while those who go by numbers are researchers and tutors. The experiment, giving Octavian extensive training in Greek, Latin, classical music and the literature of antiquity, is to determine whether the African is the intellectual equal of the Caucasian. The researchers take note of Octavian’s progress and his responses to everything, including the torture of animals. They even weigh Octavian’s food intake and output. They literally collect his feces on a gold plate and weigh and describe its appearance. Since this has been done Octavian’s entire life, he saw nothing unusual about it and was distressed at a later point in the novel when he defecated and was not able to catch and weigh the output. This is just one of a number of highly unusual and disturbing episodes in the text.

A few years Octavian’s senior and a slave in the Gitney house, Pro Bono (named because his enslaved mother was pregnant when purchased by Mr. Gitney, so her son was a “bonus”), explains to Octavian that he is in fact enslaved. Octavian has trouble comprehending this initially because he has had little exposure to life outside the College of Lucidity. Bono and Octavian develop a friendship and before Bono is sold to a Southern owner, he leaves Octavian with an escape plan.

As the American Revolution is heating up in Boston, Mr. Gitney moves to the countryside. When English Lord who funded the College of Lucidity dies, his nephew, Lord Cheldthorpe, comes from England to learn about the experiments the philosophers and scientists are conducting and determine whether he will continue to provide funding. Cheldthorpe is attracted to Cassiopeia and wants to take her back to England. She indicates that she would go as his wife, but not as his servant, insisting that she is a free woman and must be treated as such. This enrages Lord Cheldthorpe. As punishment for rejecting Cheldthorpe, Cassiopeia and Octavian are whipped for the first time ever and locked in an ice house over night. Upon Cheldthorpe’s refusal to fund the College, colonial businessman Mr. Sharpe, who has connections with Southern plantation owners, steps in to become its benefactor. Sharpe changes the nature of the experiments with the obvious aim of setting up Octavian for failure, no longer permitting Octavian to read or practice the arts, instead giving him house chores and limiting his education to translating words and phrases in isolation of broader reading.

With political unrest and smallpox on the rise and rumors of a slave uprising, Mr. Sharpe decides to host a “pox party,” infecting invited guests and Mr. Gitney’s slaves with smallpox in a controlled environment in the hope that they will attain immunity. Octavian survives, but his mother dies. Octavian then sees the scientists dissect his mother and record their findings. Deeply distressed by this, he escapes the College and makes his way to serve in the Continental Army. Eventually slave hunters find him and return him to the College where he is shackled in the basement with a bit in his mouth and an iron mask over his head. Ill, Octavian falls down and vomits in the mask. He recounts graphically,

I fell then to my knees; I fell up on the floor where my mother had fallen, sick with the fever; and I commenced to vomit through the mask, choking all the while on the dirty and acidic issue which clogged the mask and my mouth … I was crouched and still upon the floor; not moving except to heave my breath, which gargled in the mess I had coughed into the mask. At intervals, in efforts to breathe through both vomit and iron, I convulsed again in spasms; and choked more; and vomited; which foulness ran through the mask, stopping up the nose, and dripping from the eye slits, as if, defeated by Mr. Sharpe’s harangue, I wept.[12]

When it seems all hope is lost as he lay on the floor in this most dire of circumstances, listening to Mr. Sharpe speak at length in a condescending manner and Mr. Gitney and Dr. Trefusis there as well, there is a change in Sharpe’s speech and Gitney’s behavior, as though the two are fading. Readers learn that Octavian’s tutor, Dr. Trefusis, has poisoned Sharpe’s and Gitney’s tea, making them fall unconscious and allowing Octavian to escape with Dr. Trefusis to Boston. Upon their escape it is uncertain whether Octavian’s chances for freedom will be better with the British or Patriots. This is the end of the first volume.

Apart from the fact that the protagonist is a teenager, there is little about this book that makes it a “young adult novel.” The subject matter is mature and at times haunting. Some scenes are very graphic, and the vocabulary is far beyond most novels written for adults. This doesn’t mean it isn’t appropriate for adolescent readers, but it will help to have some teacher or parent guidance when reading this book.

The story’s structure is also unusual. It is written in four parts, with Parts I, II, and IV told from the perspective of Octavian looking back on his childhood and upbringing at the College of Lucidity. The tone is distant, analytical, and serious. There are many allusions to Greek mythology that convey how well-educated Octavian was. The prose is that of an eighteenth century learned man writing in a detached, scholarly or scientific fashion. After his mother’s death and subsequent dissection, Octavian’s voice disappears, and Part III is told through legal documents, letters and accounts by other characters.

The first teaching strategy for The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing is a set of ten questions designed to guide students in a close reading and deeper study of the novel. These questions may be used as the basis of class discussions, exams or essays.

Questions for Study and Discussion for Octavian Nothing
1. In what ways is Octavian’s education beneficial and harmful?
2. How does the College of Lucidity change when Dr. Sharpe replaces Lord Cheldthorpe as its benefactor?
3. In what ways are the Patriots’ aims in fighting the British hypocritical? Consider specifically that the Sons of Liberty returned Octavian to the College.
4. Which side, the Patriots or the British, appear to be more supportive of emancipating slaves? Explain.
5. What is the significance of the scratched out portions of Octavian’s manuscript testimony in Part II?
6. Discuss how the relationship between Octavian and Bono evolves.
7. The tone and vocabulary of this novel are unusual. The tone is detached and scientific, even when dealing with situations that would typically evoke emotion, and the vocabulary is very advanced. What effect do the tone and vocabulary have on your reading of Octavian’s story? Why did the author choose to tell it this way? What does this reveal about Octavian?
8. In Part III Octavian is serving in the Continental Army and goes by the name Prince. Identify at least two positive and two negative experiences Prince has while serving the Patriot cause.
9. Unlike Parts I, II, and IV, Part III is not from Octavian’s testimony. Explain how Part III is told. What effect do these sources have on your way of seeing Octavian’s story unfold?
10. This is a two-part question.

A) As exemplified in the following passage, M. T. Anderson at times uses graphic language. Is this graphic language helpful and effective or a turnoff and unnecessary? Explain your response. Excerpt from a letter from Private Evidence Goring to his sister Fruition:

The Camp is full of them – the Dying … the Companies falling to their Knees with Thirst & the Wheelbarrows filled with red, screaming Boys & the Stretchers dumped on the Grass and Flowers of a Garden – & Men hobbling between their Friends … & by the Surgeon’s Tent, where the Shrieking is continual – we all saw a Basket with Twelve Feet in it – the Soles still covered in Mud, where Minutes before they carried the Weight of Men.[13]

B) What effect does the following passage, from same letter from Evidence to Fruition, have in the context of war and its horrors as described in the preceding passage? Note that the following lines are arranged as they appear in the original text.

I rose then, on an Inspiration; & I spake of what we fought

for – Our Homeland – and the Beauty of my New England, of

the Hills & Forests; & the Broad Fields cleared for Bounty & the

Vales with Pools where Boys kick at each other’s Shins to force

a Slip

& the Rock of the Coasts

& the Summer

& the Winter

& my Cooperage in the Morning, when the Work is sharp

& neat

& Clabber-Girls with their Skirts tucked into their Waists

for Work

& Threshers catching breath against Stone Walls

& the Orchards where the Apples sour

& the Affability of our Insects

& Birds walking up Spires

& Our Devil-haunted Woods

& our Lakes & our Coves

& our Barns & our Groves…

Is this not worth dying for?[14]

While these questions help to ensure close reading and provide opportunities to check for student understanding in a traditional way, this next activity engages students in creative writing as a means to go deeper into a character’s perspective or any other aspect of the novel.

Sestina Overview and Instructions

The sestina is a specialized poetic form, perhaps the most mysterious poetic form used in English.[15] As the word suggests, the form is based on sixes; specifically, a sestina consists of six six-line stanzas and a final tercet. The last words of each line in the first stanza are repeated as the last words in the following stanzas, in a defined order. All six key words also appear in the final tercet, three as end words and one in the middle of each line. Two other structural points are: 1) the last word of one stanza is used as the last word of the first line of the next stanza, and 2) the last word of the poem repeats the last word of the first line of the poem. While this may sound confusing, the following example should prove helpful in showing the pattern of end words as they appear in a sestina. If the end words in stanza one are lettered ABCDEF, the pattern for repeating the words is as follows for stanzas 1-6 (sestets) and stanza 7, the final tercet:[16]

1. 1. 1. ABCDEF
      2. FAEBDC
      3. CFDABE
      4. ECBFAD
      5. DEACFB
      6. BDFECA
      7. ECA (with BDF midline)

What is fascinating is that each end word is positioned next to every other end word twice in the poem. If one were to make a hexagon of end words (called ABCDEF) and connect each end word as it touches all the other end words in every stanza, they see that the poem is graphically complete and looks like an intricate web. This locked network of repetition makes the sestina especially well-suited for exploring compulsive subjects, problems without solutions, obsessions or dream states. Given the predicament the protagonists of Chains and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing find themselves in, the sestina is an ideal poetic form to convey character experiences and dilemmas. The end word in a line does not need to be the end of a sentence or end of a thought. Understanding this provides writers with more flexibility in shaping ideas in the poem. Table 3 provides an example sestina written from the perspective of Octavian and traces key points of his journey in chronological order. The words “from Manuscript Testimony” in the poem’s title refers to that wording in the book itself, as Octavian’s story is told through “manuscript testimony.”[17] Teachers may also want to have students compose an accompanying paper explaining what they intended to accomplish through their sestina and what they learned or saw more clearly about the text as a result of composing the poem.

Table 3: Example Sestina for The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing

Octavian’s Sestina, from Manuscript Testimony

Born the son of an African Princess in the College of Lucidity
I, Octavian, learnt the Classics and achievements of Europe.
I mastered the violin to harpsicord accompaniment by my mother
Cassiopeia, the princess, snatched at 13 to this Bostonian home.
Philosophers and scientists, 03-01, 09-01 and me, the experiment
Weighing my intake and output, catching my feces on a plate of gold.

In sweet repose nude nymphs and youths in the Golden
Age of Man meet in a painting as birds dip to the lucid
Flow of air. My response to art is part of the experiment
As is how I respond to my poisoned dog dying. The superiority of Europe
Becomes my only frame as far from home
Though honored for her beauty and charm, my mother

Is a showpiece. They revel in the pedigree of my mother,
The African Princess who would entertain them in the golden
Light as evening came and guests conversed this home
Of prized possession, the annals of the College of Lucidity.
The first benefactor died and Lord Cheldthorpe came from Europe
As 03-01, 09-01 entreated him to fund the experiment.

With tutelage in Homer, Virgil and more, the experiment
Was me. Could the African son of an African mother
Be the intellectual equal of the Enlightened European?
Lord Cheldthorpe advanced and Cassiopeia rejected the gold
He thought himself to be. Punished by whipping. Illucid
Is this account that ended with she and I in the home’s

Ice house over night. With the backdrop of the Revolution, the home
Was at risk and more so the esteemed experiment
Till the small gray man in a gray silk coat took Lucidity
Under his care, perverting the study of mother
And me to please Southern plantations of gold
Too base and arrogant to permit the African to be the equal to the European.

Controlled was the party to infect with smallpox the European
And the African. I survived, but mother in the home’s
Basement collapsed and perished. With their instruments of gold
They dissected her. In horror I escaped their dreadful experiment,
Played violin with the Patriots till, like my mother,
They captured me. Shackled in the basement of Lucidity

Where the observant Europeans put a bit in my mouth. The experiment
With an iron mask over my head, at home, vomiting on the floor where mother,
Feverish and devoid of princess gold, died in the College of Lucidity.

Four-sectioned Pyramid Overview and Instructions

A final activity for use with either Chains or The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing is the four-sectioned pyramid. This activity works especially well after reading an entire novel so that students have the big picture in mind and thus a wide range of choices.

A four-sectioned pyramid is a hands-on activity that helps students think carefully about a text they are reading and identify four aspects they find to be of particular importance.[18] Good topics for exploration include characters, themes, setting, major plot points, conflict and symbolism. The assignment consists of two parts – a three-dimensional pyramid and a written explanation. Following are step-by-step instructions for creating the physical structure of the four-sectioned pyramid.

1. 1. 1. Start with 8 ½” x 11” paper, preferably card stock. Cut it so it is 8 ½” x 8 ½” square.
      2. Fold the paper corner to corner into a triangle. Make a firm crease on the folded edge.
      3. Open the sheet back to square and fold the paper to the opposite corner, again so the shape is triangular. Make a firm crease on the folded edge.
      4. Open the sheet back to square. Cut just one of the creased lines from the edge of the paper to the center; do not cut past the center of the page.
      5. Fold the cut edge under, and you have your first quadrant for the four-sectioned pyramid. Glue, tape or staple the paper so the quadrant stays in place.
      6. Repeat steps 1-5 with three other sheets of paper.
      7. Place the four sections back-to-back, and glue them together. Ta-da! You have built the structure for this assignment.

For each of the four sections, students should choose a particular focus relating to some aspect of the novel. Each section should include a word or phrase that conveys its focus and a quote that relates to its main idea. In addition to the word or phrase and quote in each quadrant, students should add three to five relevant images to “show” the story. Once students have completed their pyramid, they should compose a four-paragraph essay explaining what they included in each quadrant and how it relates to the novel. Teachers may want to add a fifth paragraph asking students to reflect on what they learned or saw more clearly about the text as a result of completing the pyramid. Table 4 provides an example four-sectioned pyramid in response to The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Volume 1 – The Pox Party. Rather than including the four-paragraph essay that would normally accompany the pyramid, Table 4 concludes with a short explanation of each quadrant.

Table 4: Example Four-sectioned Pyramid for Octavian Nothing

Quadrant 1: Octavian – The violin and books represent his musical ability and classical education. The chains and mask were elements of punishment imposed on Octavian by Mr. Sharpe and Mr. Gitney.

Quadrant 2: Cassiopeia – Though enslaved, she is viewed as an African princess. The harpsichord represents her musical ability, and the tombstone represents her death from smallpox.

Quadrant 3: Dr. Trefusis – He is also referred to as 09-01 in the book. He was Octavian’s tutor at the Novanglian College of Lucidity, represented by the picture of an eighteenth century building. He poisoned Mr. Sharpe and Mr. Gitney in order to free Octavian and escape with him to Boston.

Quadrant 4: Mr. Sharpe – He was the mastermind behind the experiments on Octavian and Cassiopeia and the host of the “Pox Party.” The eighteenth century surgical kit represents his dissection of Cassiopeia after her death

Closing Thoughts

The novels of Laurie Halse Anderson and M. T. Anderson are helpful tools to aid student understanding of the Black experience, both enslaved and free, in the American Revolution. Readers will likely be interested in reading the remaining books in each series. Laurie Halse Anderson’s Seeds of America trilogy continues with Forge, which traces Curzon’s life in the Continental army at Valley Forge where soldiers face severe cold and hunger and the threat of the British army; Ashes traces Isabel and Curzon’s search to find Isabel’s sister Ruth and the quest for freedom as they make their way through the war between the Patriots and the British.[19] M. T. Anderson’s The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume II – The Kingdom on the Waves takes place after Octavian has escaped the Novanglian College of Lucidity.[20] The bulk of the story occurs on a ship as Octavian has gained his freedom by joining the British navy. In addition to facing hunger and life-threatening illness and figuring out whom they can and cannot trust, Octavian and his compatriots tell stories of their enslavement. While the reader response questions in this article are specific to the novels, the coat of arms, sestina, and four-sectioned pyramid are adaptable to virtually any text. It is the aim of the combination of serious discussion, traditional, analytical and creative writing and hands-on, artistic opportunities to engage students in ways that result in deep, lasting and meaningful learning that they enjoy and remember so that they can share these important stories and perspectives for years to come.

[1] Patrick H. Hannum, “Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation: Information and Slavery,” Journal of the American Revolution, December 30, 2019, allthingsliberty.com/2019/12/lord-dunmores-proclamation-information-and-slavery/.

[2] Edward Ayres, “African Americans and the American Revolution,” Jamestown Settlement – American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, 2025, www.jyfmuseums.org/learn/research-and-collections/essays/african-americans-and-the-american-revolution.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ken Daigler, “James Armistead Lafayette,” Journal of the American Revolution, September 26, 2017, allthingsliberty.com/2017/09/james-lafayette-james-armistead-american-spy/’.

[5] Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2008); M.T. Anderson, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1 – The Pox Party (Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2006).

[6] Anderson, Chains, 293.

[7] Ibid., 294.

[8] Ibid., 298, 300.

[9] Laurie Halse Anderson, Forge (New York, NY: Atheneum, 2010).

[10] Peter O’Donoghue, “Coat of Arms,” Historic UK, 2025, www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Coats-of-Arms/.

[11] Jacqueline Glasgow, Using Young Adult Literature: Thematic Activities Based on Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon, 2002), 176.

[12] Anderson, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, 338, 340.

[13] Ibid., 293.

[14] Ibid., 295-296.

[15] Frances Mayes, The Discovery of Poetry (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987), 339.

[16] Ibid., 340.

[17] Anderson, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, 117.

[18] Linda J. Rice, “From Helpless to Resilience in Caroline B. Cooney’s The Face on the Milk Carton Quartet” in Jacqueline Glasgow, ed., Strategies for Engaging Young Adult Readers: A Social Themes Approach (Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon, 2005), 183.

[19] Laurie Halse Anderson, Ashes (New York, NY: Atheneum, 2016).

[20] M.T. Anderson, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume II – The Kingdom on the Waves (Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2008).