Copper Sun

Draper, Sharon. 2006. Copper sun. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN 9780689821813

Plot Summary

15 year-old Amari and the people of her small African village welcome the white strangers who come to the village, unaware of the danger they pose. Amari runs when the white strangers suddenly start killing all of the elders and children, but she is captured along with all of the young people of the village. This is the beginning of her harrowing journey to America. Along the way she is repeatedly sold and raped, her only comfort being the friendship and wisdom of an experienced slave who tries to convince Amari that she has a destiny awaiting her.

When she arrives in America, Amari is bought as a birthday present for the cruel son of a cruel master. Amari is to be “civilized” by Polly, an indentured servant whose situation in life is only marginally better than Amari’s. Amari and Polly develop a tentative friendship that deepens when they decide to run away after witnessing their master murder a slave and a newborn child. They journey south to Spanish owned lands, avoiding the potential trap of traveling north along roads filled with people looking to recapture runaway slaves. In Fort Mose Amari finds her hard-won freedom, and her destiny.

Critical Analysis

Told in alternating chapters from the viewpoints of Amari and Polly, this story reveals the unimaginable horrors of the slave trade and the racism that allowed it to flourish. Amari is brought to the brink of despair time and time again, but each time she is brought back by the small kindnesses and love of the other slaves, Polly, and a few other characters who are powerless to change a system that they know to be deplorable. Amari finds the strength to find freedom, and to begin to heal.

Polly provides insight into the ingrained racism of the white people, it is only through witnessing what Amari is going through, and the eventual realization that her status may not protect her from a similar fate, that Polly begins to question her racial superiority. “Polly's cynicism and realistic outlook on life provides a welcome contrast to the lost innocence of Amari, whose voice often disappears beneath the misery of her circumstances” (Kirkus Reviews).

The sheer magnitude of what Amari witnesses and endures seems incredible. “Every bad thing that befell an African slave either happens to or is witnessed by Amari (e.g., Africans eaten by sharks, children used as live alligator bait, an infant shot dead out of spite). Rape is constant.” (Publisher’s Weekly). Draper provides an extensive bibliography and lists of websites for readers to read more about slavery and discover these truths that many people would rather gloss over.

 

Review Citations

2006. "Copper Sun." Publishers Weekly 253, no. 2: 55.

2006. "COPPER SUN." Kirkus Reviews 74, no. 1: 39.