A Flag for Juneteenth

Everyone sat around me in a big circle and Mr. Menard handed me a large sack tied with a pretty ribbon. I opened it. My own freedom flag!

Mr. Menard said, “Everyone on the plantation helped sew it. But it isn’t finished yet.”

My flag was a patchwork of soft yellow and green with a purple stripe across the middle.

“Huldah,” Mama said, “this white star represents our right to freedom. Please sew it into your flag.” She handed me a needle and my little jar.

I placed the star so that it rose from the purple stripe like a sunrise. I sewed in the bright sunbeam so that it could help to guide me whenever I might take it.

That night, as our neighbors returned to their cabins, Mama and Papa whispered to me that they had planned something special just for us. We held hands as we walked into the woods.

Mama and Papa hugged me. “Happy birthday, Huldah! Happy Jubilee Day.”

We looked up at the moonlit sky as the tall trees smiled down at us. Mama and Papa wrapped baby Eve in my beautiful flag. They held her high, and together, we owned our freedom.