Freedom Begins in the Mind Before it Reaches the Body

June 2026 IABD Time Keepers of the Flame

Barbecue, watermelon and red soda water. Juneteenth in Houston was packing a cooler across the grass at Hermann Park - heavy with ice, Big Red, Tahitian Treat and potato salad - handle gripped mightily in my two small hands while my father held the other in one.

Juneteenth in Houston was a migration from Galveston to the unwanted swamp land near Buffalo Bayou, and the establishment of Freedmen’s Town by everyday people co-laboring to build community - holding joy, fear, hope, and uncertainty.

Six generations ago, Sam was enslaved as a cook aboard a boat in Galveston. Black mother, white father, sold by Mrs. Waters into the cruelty of the Adams family. Given books in secret by Mr. Waters. Sold to the Price family in Montgomery County, Texas. Sam became a builder, then landowner, and father to a lineage of faith, of learning, of secrets, and me - resilient, hopeful, fighting to stay free.

Waters. Adams. Sherman. And still I enjoy barbecue, watermelon and red soda water.

An Epistle to the Newly Freed of Galveston

From Sam Adams, a Servant of Truth and Liberty

My Beloved Brethren in Galveston,

Grace and peace be unto you on this day of jubilee, when chains fall and spirits rise. I, Sam Adams, who was once sold upon your shores, send these words as testament to what was and what might yet be.

Remember ye this day. Mark it well in your hearts, for the Lord has looked upon our affliction and heard our cries. Though freedom comes late, it arrives not too late for the building of new lives upon solid ground.

In my fourscore and three years, I have learned that freedom begins in the mind before it reaches the body. When I was yet in bondage, I dug a sanctuary beneath the earth to hide my precious books. By flickering light, I fed my spirit with knowledge no master could claim. Therefore I say unto you: Guard your learning as a treasure beyond Price. Let wisdom be the oil that fills your lamps in darkness.

Seek out your kindred who have been scattered like seed upon hard soil. Learn the names of your kin. Write them down. Speak them aloud. For the bonds of family are sacred threads that, woven together, create a tapestry no hardship can easily tear asunder.

Tend to the earth with the work of your hands. Steward the land that has known your sweat and your tears - not for possession's sake, but that your toil might shape a home for generations yet unborn. I have set aside ground for worship and remembrance, knowing that a people must have both sacred space to praise the Lord and hallowed earth to honor ancestors.

Build with your gifts what your heart knows is needful. These hands have laid stone upon stone, raising dwellings and sanctuaries even while my own body was not yet free. Your skills, whether in wood or word, soil or song are manna for our wandering people.

Born Waters, sold as Adams, I carried the name of those who purchased me rather than claim my father's name, so deep was my wound. Cast away the bitter Waters that threaten to drown your newly freed spirit. Unforgiveness is a chain we forge ourselves, binding the spirit when the body has already been freed. Let not the bitter Waters quench the fire of your newfound liberty.

Cherish the children who will never know the lash or auction block. My unknown babes, fifteen in number, taken from the breast of my beloved Louise. Now behold the babes in freedom, their eyes unacquainted with fear, minds unshackled to dream. They are the true measure of our deliverance. Each child who grows in liberty is a monument carved in healing, and more lasting than marble.

Beloved, this proclamation marks not the end but the beginning of a long journey. Many will seek to bind with paper what iron can no longer hold. To enslave with fear, what truth has set free. Be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Stand together as one body with many members, each supporting the other.

May God strengthen your hearts and hands for the work ahead. May your children speak of this day as the glorious beginning of a new testament written in justice and truth. 

Go forth from Galveston not merely as freed men and women, but as architects of a new covenant with this land that has known you bruised and remembers you steadfast.

In faith,

Sam Adams

Excerpt from Our Road Home

Written to and shared with those who create and preserve spaces and practices of freedom, autonomy and healing.

by Jakari Sherman

Creativ. Director

[Jk]creativ.

Houston, Texas