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  • 3 days ago
Creating Addy Walker required a deep commitment to historical truth. In this video, see how American Girl worked with a formal advisory board of historians to ensure Addy’s journey from slavery to freedom was told with accuracy and care. This video highlights the significance behind her meet dress and her mother’s role as a seamstress.

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00:00Here we have Addie Walker. She is set in 1864 during the Civil War.
00:04While we worked with experts and museum curators and scholars for the development of all of the characters prior to
00:11Addie,
00:11Addie's was the first that we had a formal advisory board for.
00:15I believe it was seven people who were experts in the history of slavery, the history of the black experience
00:20in the 1800s,
00:22and experts in children's literature. And they really advised on all details of Addie's world.
00:27For example, they really felt it was important to start Addie's books in slavery.
00:33But by the end of the book, they believed very firmly that the readers should see Addie in freedom.
00:38They also felt very strongly that Addie's meat dress should be the first dress she wears in freedom.
00:44And so in the book, we have Addie get this dress from Miss Caroline, who helps Addie and her mother
00:50escape to Philadelphia.
00:52And here you can see kind of an exploration of different colors and different fabrics from the time.
00:56Addie's mother is actually a seamstress. And that was a very strategic choice on author Connie Porter's part.
01:03And that's because by making her a seamstress, Connie gave Addie access to a lot more fabrics than would have
01:10been available typically to black families in Philadelphia.
01:14For example, in Addie Learns a Lesson, this outfit is an outfit that her mom actually made her.
01:19She's competing in a spelling bee. And it's really important to Addie because, again, to reflect the historical experience,
01:26the black community reading was really important in the 1800s.
01:30And so here we also have an 1860s union reader that was actually replicated for Addie's school accessories.
01:38Oh, and this little medal is what she wins when she wins the spelling bee.
01:42You're going to take a little bit of a little bit of a tiny, little bit of a little bit
01:42of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit.
01:42You're going to keep the back of the крепion bee.
01:42So there is a relationship between the div and the hook and the other people are going to start with
01:42her as well as the girls.
01:42You
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