Section 1. Samuel's Choice (p.1-15)
 

First Word: p.1 paragraph 1  MILL
ìIn my fourteenth year, he bought me from his old aunt in Flushing and took me from parents to work as a slave in his flour mill on Gowanus Creek in Brooklyn.î
Definition:  A mill is a place where you work with flour.
Part of speech: noun
Q. Where on the farm does Samuel do a lot of the labor?
A. Samuel spends many hours in the mill shoveling flour into bags.
 

Second Word: p.3 paragraph 2   TIDES
ìRound and round the great stone wheel rolled and rambled all day long, driven by tides flowing in and out of the creek.î
Definition:  Tides are the movement of water that are controlled by the attractions of the moon and sun.
Part of speech:  noun, verb
Q. Why does Samuel need to learn the tides?
A. we learn that Samuel is going to be sailing, and he needs to know the currents to do that.
 

Third word: p.5 paragraph 1  HARBOR
ìI was to row Mrs. Van Ditmas and her daughters over to Manhattan, or down the Brooklyn shore to Staten Island across the harbor.î
Definition:  A small body of water near land.
Part of speech: noun
Q. Why was Samuel sailing in the harbor?
A.  Samuel was transporting Mrs. Van Dimus and her daughters to Manhattan.
 

Fourth Word: p.8 paragraph 4  LIBERTY
ìThey called their freedom ìliberty,î and they marched through Brooklyn town cheering for that liberty.î
Definition:   freedom from control
Part of speech:  noun
Q. Do the slaves think they will have liberty.
A. Sana explains, ìYou have to do more than say you're free.î  Some of the slaves think that liberty is not for Africans.
 

Fifth word: p.9 paragraph 4  PROCLAMATION
ìOne day Liberty men nailed a proclamation to a tree by the South road.î
Definition:  The Liberty men were declaring something in writing.
Part of Speech:  noun
Q. What do you think the men of Liberty wrote on their proclamation?
A. The Liberty men were proclaiming their independence from Britain.