The Firefly Letters

  Engle, M.  (2010).  The Firefly Letters: A suffragette's journey to Cuba. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

This book won the Pura Belpre Award for 2010.

The book contains letters, sort of like a diary, written or dictated by three women and a man.  The women were Fredrika, a writer of Poetry from Sweden, Elena, the daughter of the owner of the house in Cuba, Cecilia, a 16 year old slave girl who was almost a mother, and Beni her husband, also a slave.

Cecilia was only eight when her father traded her into slavery for a cow.  She came to live in Cuba with Elena and her parents.  Fredrika came to stay with Elena's family so she could think and write in peace.  The house was too noisy so she asked to use a small cottage in the garden and have Cecilia for a companion.  Cecilia and Fredrika go out at night to rescue fireflies from the children, trading coins or food or other gifts so the children will set them free.  One night, on the beach, a boat arrives and drops off cargo.  The boat was a slave ship and this reminded Cecilia of how she came to be on the island.  She became frightened and Fredrika was made so sick by the encounter that she was in bed for a week.  It was the first time she had seen the slaves in chains.  Cecilia has an illness that causes her to become short of breath and cough up blood (not unlike tuberculosis).  She is almost ready to deliver her baby and she doesn't want it to be a slave.  Elena has been working on doilies, handkerchiefs, linens, lace collars and other things for her hope chest.  It is full and she gets Fredrika to smuggle it out of the house a little at a time so her mother won't find out about it.  She has a plan and will not be stopped.  She sells her goods and gives the money to Cecilia so she can purchase her baby's freedom before it is born.

I could only feel pain for the life that Cecilia has to live, being a slave by her own father's hand.  I would have been angry, frightened, worried about my family, and felt unloved by those around me.  What would a young eight year old think about having to go to a new place, not knowing anyone?