ABSTRACT
The author of Night Running: How James Escaped with the Help of His Faithful Dog, Elisa Carbone, came across the story while writing the historical-fiction novel Stealing Freedom (1998) and decided to create a picture book that is based on it. Night Running is a story based on the true story of the escape of a slave named James Smith who was aided in his flight from the slave state of West Virginia to Ohio by his faithful hunting dog, Zeus. Throughout the book, Zeus helps James to overcome a number of obstacles to find his way to freedom. Zeus comes to his rescue when the overseers try to capture him in the woods. Initially, Levi, who is also a slave, is positioned as victim who seeks to resist by joining James on a flight to freedom. The Master Graham character shows how race and class work together in the antebellum period.
