Race for Freedom Read Free Page B

captain’s cabin at the front of the texas deck. Each weekday she and Caleb met there for their school lessons. On one side of the room was Pa’s bed. The rest of the cabin served as a sitting room and place to bring guests.
    Libby’s father sat in his large rocking chair. On the floor next to him lay a pile of newspapers. Bold letters across the top page told Libby he was reading the
Daily Hawkeye & Telegraph
. He must have picked up the papers in Burlington.
    “Hi, Pa,” Libby said.
    His long arm reached out, circling her waist. Yet to Libby’s surprise, Pa’s gaze never left the newspaper.
    “Are you reading about Lake Pepin?” she asked.
    Each spring steamboat captains waited eagerly for the ice to move out of the lake and the opening of riverboat traffic to St. Paul. That meant an exciting race between steamboats.
    Captain Norstad shook his head. Still without looking up, he said, “Just catching up on the news.”
    Standing beside him, Libby watched her father. Even sitting down, he looked tall and slender. Except for the touch of white above his ears, his black hair was as dark as his captain’s uniform. As he held up the newspaper, one of his hands trembled.
    “What is it, Pa?” Libby asked.
    When Captain Norstad put down the paper, he looked up at her. Tears stood in the dark brown eyes that were so much like Libby’s.
    Fear tightened her throat. “What’s wrong, Pa?” Not since her mother died had she seen her father so upset.
    Just then Caleb entered the room. After one look at the captain, he sat down at the table without speaking.
    Captain Norstad pushed back his chair and stood up. “How could they?” he asked. His tears were gone now, replaced by anger. “How could the Supreme Court of the United States make such a decision?”
    Pa waved a hand at the newspapers on the floor. “There are several articles about the Dred Scott decision. But look at this one!” He slid a paper across the table. “It explains how I feel.”
    Filled with curiosity, Libby looked over Caleb’s shoulder, but she didn’t understand what the articles said. “What are they talking about?” she asked finally.
    Captain Norstad explained. “Dred Scott is a slave who has lived in a free state and a free territory. Based on that, he asked for his freedom. The Supreme Court ruled that because he’s a slave, Dred Scott is not a citizen of the United States. According to them, he has never been free because he’s personal property.”
    Captain Norstad shook his head in disbelief. When he sat down again, he showed Caleb the place where he had marked each newspaper. “We need to study all of this,” he said. “A lot of people are going to be upset about this ruling. It could lead our country to war.”
    “To
war?
” Libby asked. War was even more frightful than her other fears. “How could America go to war?”
    Just then Libby heard a soft thump outside the cabin. As she glanced toward a window, she wondered if she saw a quick movement. If someone had been there, he was already gone.
    Maybe I imagined it
, Libby thought and turned her attention back to Pa. With Libby and Caleb sitting at the large table, Captain Norstad began teaching the day’s lessons. Libby tried to keep her mind on what he said. Yet she saw when Jordan looked through the window in the upper half of the door. So did Pa.
    “Come in,” he called.
    With a captain’s uniform over one arm, Jordan walked to a closet and hung up the jacket. Instead of leaving again, he found a broom and started to sweep. Often he turned his head as though listening to what the captain said.
    Libby wondered about it. Both Jordan and Caleb worked as cabin boys. Had Jordan come in now because he wanted to know what was going on?
    “I have a number of short trips delivering freight in Iowa and Illinois,” the captain told Libby and Caleb as he gave them their assignment for the next day. “We’ll go up and down this part of the river for a few weeks before