Tim Tingle's book CROSSING BOK CHITTO: A CHOCTAW TALE OF FRIENDSHIP & FREEDOM is the retelling of a story passed down as a song by the Choctaw recounting how the Choctaw would help runaway slaves. Before the Civil War, the Bok Chitto river separated the Choctaw from the plantations. If runaway slaves crossed the Bok Chitto, they were free.
In the story Martha Tom is told by her Choctaw mother to gather blackberries so she can prepare something for a wedding that day. Martha Tom inadvertently crosses the Bok Chitto and witnesses a gathering of a forbidden slave church in the woods. The slaves discover Martha Tom, and one of the slave boys, Little Mo, takes her back across the river. Even though he is afraid to do this at first, his father tells him to, "...move not too fast, not too slow, eyes to the ground, away you go!" When they get to the river, Martha Tom shows Mo a hidden path of stones under the muddy water. Then Mo witnessed the Choctaw wedding gathering.
Martha Tom continues to cross the Bok Chitto on Sundays to go to the church gatherings of the slaves in the woods. Then the slave family hears that Little Mo's mother is being taken to a slave sale in New Orleans. Mo tells them they can cross the Bok Chitto before she is taken away. They use the father's earlier advise to be "invisible" and leave the slave quarters without being seen.
Mo manages to get across and the Choctaw tell them they will help. That night, the plantation guards witnessed beautiful singing "angels" (the Choctaw) leading the runaways as they walked on water to freedom.
What a beautiful tale to share with the students. The author includes history and photos of the Choctaw at the end of the book. This book will work perfectly in demonstrating how people should accept and celebrate other's differences and treasure what those differences can bring to their lives. It shows the power of friendship and what can be accomplished when we share and learn from each other.
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