Freedom Over Me recreates the lives and dreams of eleven slaves, whose names or descriptions, in the case of “one Boy more” and Peggy’s “child,” turned up on an 1828 appraisal of the estate of Cado Fairchilds. Ashley Bryan purchased the document twenty years before he wrote and illustrated this profoundly moving work. He gives each of these enslaved individuals faces and voices, reflecting their struggles and their hopes. Three of the women, Betty, Mulvina, and Peggy, are highlighted in this exhibition.