In Congo Square on Sundays, slave were briefly free to set up an open market, sing, dance, and play music. They were free to forget their terrible cares, their monumental struggles, and their horrific oppression. This story chronicles the slaves’ backbreaking duties each day, from chopping logs on Mondays to baking bread on Wednesdays to plucking hens on Saturday, and builds to the brief burst of freedom of Sundays and the special experience of an afternoon spent in Congo Square.

This poetic story about a little-known piece of African American history captures a human’s capacity to find hope and joy in difficult circumstances. The book includes a forward from Freddi Williams Evans, a historian and Congo Square expert, as well as a glossary of terms with pronunciations and definitions.