Juba! (15 page)

The story of William Henry Lane, known as Master Juba, was told early on by Marian Hannah Winter in
Dance Index
, February 1947. The original sources she cites are mostly descriptions, advertising flyers, and reviews of his performances, the first of which was the description by Charles Dickens in his
American Notes
in 1842. Juba was at that time seventeen or eighteen years old. His early life is not documented, but most sources say he was freeborn in Providence, Rhode Island, and moved to New York City in his midteens.

The task of telling his story appealed to Walter for a good few years. Here was a very young man born into a time when people of his race were held in slavery. Although New York freed all slaves in 1827, life for a person without many resources was extremely hard whatever his or her race. Poor immigrants and blacks struggled to survive in the area known as Five Points in New York City. Juba was able to become an accomplished performer under these conditions. He traveled to London and was a great success. Information about the times and places that were important in telling the story was easily found, but what happened at the end of Master Juba's life was not recorded. Many of his performances were documented in
reviews, as well as in announcements of future appearances in local papers throughout the British Isles. It is clear that Master Juba performed on a grueling schedule for the first years in England. After that, there is no contemporary record of what happened to him. Walter wanted to tell the story, but he felt that some information about what became of Juba was needed to complete the tale.

While in London, Walter researched family history records. Finally, in the 1851 census, an entry was found in the town of Dudley. It shows a couple living as lodgers in the home of John Preece, a tailor. Here we see Henry Juba and his wife, Sarah. Juba is listed as a professor of dance, twenty-six, from Barbados. The English census does not indicate the race of those enumerated. If Juba had listed himself as American, he would have been considered an alien, but as a person from Barbados, he was a British subject.

A researcher, Dr. Stephen W. Taylor, was hired to search for some further information about Juba. He was able to find the documents that tell of the final days of Master Juba. In the records of the workhouse of Liverpool, there is an entry for Boz's Juba. He died February 3, 1854, in the workhouse, Brownlow Hill (Liverpool), listed as a musician who died of febris, or fever. Finally, a burial entry for Juba, age thirty, was found in the Free Parochial Cemetery of St. Martin in the Fields, Silvester Street, Liverpool.

With the final days of William Henry Lane—Master
Juba—now known, Walter was able to craft this story. He had researched the Five Points area extensively for
Riot,
his book on the draft riot of 1863, and London of the mid-1800s for his book on Sarah Forbes Bonetta,
At Her Majesty's Request
. Annie Sieg, an Irish dancer, read the manuscript and contributed many suggestions on dance techniques and some of the feelings of a performer.

Walter included the following historical characters:

Charles Dickens—who wrote about his visit to Almack's in 1842

Peter Williams—the owner of Almack's

Lilly, Peter's wife—mentioned by Dickens (referred to as the landlady, but not by name)

Master John Diamond—a famed dancer

Jim Lowe—an older dancer said to mentor Juba

Gilbert W. Pell—leader of the Serenaders

Mr. Briggs, Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Everton, and Mr. Valentine—the rest of the Serenaders

Sarah Felton—Juba's wife, named in the census of 1851, but her maiden name not given.

Walter added the rest of the cast of characters, surrounding Juba with friends and associates. Stubby, Freddy, Jack Bishop, and Margaret Moran were Juba's principal supporters. Although they were fictional, Walter had photographs of these characters chosen from his photograph collection, which he
posted on the wall in front of his computer. They lived in his mind as much as any real character did as he wrote the story of William Henry Lane, known as Master Juba.

—Constance Myers

Five-time Coretta Scott King Award winner
WALTER DEAN MYERS
was the acclaimed author of a wide variety of nonfiction and fiction for young people. His nonfiction includes
We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart; Now Is Your Time!: The African-American Struggle for Freedom;
I've Seen the Promised Land: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly;
and
Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam,
a Jane Addams Children's Book Award winner. His illustrious list of young adult novels includes
Darius & Twig;
All the Right Stuff; Lockdown; Dope Sick; Autobiography of My Dead Brother; New York Times
bestseller
Monster,
the first winner of the Michael L. Printz Award; and many more. He was a National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and an inaugural NYC Literary Honoree. Learn more about him online at
www.walterdeanmyers.net
and
www.who-is-america.com
.

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Just Write: Here's How!

All the Right Stuff

We Are America:

A Tribute from the Heart

ILLUSTRATED BY CHRISTOPHER MYERS

Kick

COAUTHORED BY ROSS WORKMAN

Looking for the Easy Life

ILLUSTRATED BY LEE HARPER

Lockdown

Muhammad Ali:

The People's Champion

ILLUSTRATED BY ALIX DELINOIS

Dope Sick

Game

Ida B. Wells:

Let the Truth Be Told

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The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage

Street Love

Autobiography of My Dead Brother

ILLUSTRATED BY CHRISTOPHER MYERS

It Ain't All for Nothin'

I've Seen the Promised Land:

The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Shooter

The Dream Bearer

Handbook for Boys: A Novel

Crystal

Patrol:

An American Soldier in Vietnam

ILLUSTRATED BY ANN GRIFALCONI

Bad Boy: A Memoir

Malcolm X:

A Fire Burning Brightly

ILLUSTRATED BY LEONARD JENKINS

Monster

Angel to Angel:

A Mother's Gift of Love

Glorious Angels:

A Celebration of Children

The Story of the Three Kingdoms

ILLUSTRATED BY ASHLEY BRYAN

Brown Angels:

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of Artemis Bonner

Now Is Your Time!: The African-American Struggle for Freedom

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Cover art © 2015 by Andy Bridge

Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons

Photo credits:

Pages
here
,
here
,
here
,
here
,
here
,
here
,
here
, and
here
:

Courtesy of the Walter Dean Myers Archives

Page
here
: Courtesy of the Harvard Theatre Collection,

Houghton Library, Harvard University

Pages
here
and
here
: Courtesy of Library of Congress

Page
here
: Courtesy of British Newspaper Archive

Page
here
: Courtesy of General Register Office

Page
here
: Courtesy of Register of St. Martin's

in the Fields Free Parochial Cemetery in Liverpool

Amistad is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

JUBA!
Copyright © 2015 by Walter Dean Myers and the Estate of Walter Myers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Myers, Walter Dean, 1937–2014.

     Juba! / Walter Dean Myers.

             pages     cm

     Summary: A young African American man tries to make it as a dancer in New York's Five Points district and in England in the 1800s.

     ISBN 978-0-06-211271-2 (hardback)

     EPub Edition © September 2015 ISBN 9780062112743

     1. Lane, William Henry, approximately 1825–1852—Juvenile fiction.  [1. Lane, William Henry, approximately 1825–1852—Fiction.  2. Dancers—Fiction.  3. African Americans—New York (State)—New York—Fiction.  4. Prejudices—Fiction.  5. Five Points (New York, N.Y.)—History—19th century—Fiction.  6. London (England)—History—19th century—Fiction. 7. Great Britain—History—Victoria, 1837–1901—Fiction.]  I. Title.

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FIRST EDITION