Freedom at Dawn: Robert Smalls’s Voyage Out of Slavery, by Leah Schanke and Oboh Moses

This article first appeared in the NY Journal of Books on 10 April 2025.

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“The true story of one man’s brave plan to free his family from slavery.”

Freedom at Dawn: Robert Smalls’s Voyage Out of Slavery, written by Leah Schanke and illustrated by Oboh Moses, is a picture book that tells the remarkable story of Robert Smalls, an enslaved man who escaped captivity during the Civil War. Born in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina, Smalls commandeered a Confederate vessel, the Planter, and sailed it to freedom for himself, his family, and other enslaved people. Told from the perspective of one of Smalls’s young children, the narrative seeks to make this incredible act of defiance accessible to children, particularly those aged 4-8.

Leah Schanke, who has family roots in South Carolina, brings personal connection to the story, though her prose reads much like an informative Wikipedia entry. The language is straightforward, which is likely intended to simplify the complex events for young readers, but it can feel flat and overly factual.

"They're fighting because the South wants to continue slavery.”

In this one-sentence explanation, the story also oversimplifies the complicated situation surrounding the Civil War. The choice to include this line might be an attempt to directly connect young readers to the reason behind the conflict, but it feels reductive. Moreover, it doesn’t significantly impact the plot or themes of the story and could arguably be left out entirely without loss of meaning.

Despite the text’s shortcomings, the book excels in its artwork. Oboh Moses’s use of light and shadow creates a strong emotional atmosphere in his digital illustrations that adds great depth to the story. Whether depicting the tense moments before Smalls’s escape or the joyous release of freedom, each scene is rendered with a sense of realism that brings the story to life, particularly for non-white children who will see themselves in the characters pictured. For children in the target age group, the detailed artwork can spark deeper conversations about what really happened, with the text helping caretakers fill in the historical gaps.

Freedom at Dawn shines in its ability to introduce an important, non-white historical figure and his courageous actions. The combination of a significant but, perhaps, little known historical event with evocative illustrations makes this book a useful resource for sparking curiosity and starting important conversations about the history of slavery.