Forever Free Playlist

 These musical works follow the plot of my book, Forever Free: A Novel of Edmonia Lewis. You can listen to them on my Spotify playlist.




Native American flute

Edmonia Lewis was raised in her mother's Ojibwe culture. Flute and drum music would have formed the soundtrack of her childhood.

Lead, Kindly Light

Yet this Christian hymn would not have been unknown to the Ojibwe, who translated songs they enjoyed into their own language. 

The Song of Hiawatha

In turn, the Ojibwe tale of Hiawatha was retold in English in Longfellow's epic poem. It was a familiar note for Edmonia when she left her forest home to attend a white school.

Blow Ye the Trumpet Blow

Later, when she settled in Boston to study sculpting, Edmonia understood her father's Haitian heritage. She celebrated with other blacks when Frederick Douglass announced the passing of the 13th Amendment, the abolition of slavery, in Tremont Temple.

The Old Folks at Home 

I imagine Edmonia and the other residents of her Boston boarding house gathering in the sitting room each evening. Whoever had an instrument would have played it, with the others singing along to melancholy songs as each of them remembered faraway families. 

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

The sight of the 54th Battalion marching off to war inspired Edmonia to sculpt a bust of their leader, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.

Napule Bella

The bust of Colonel Shaw was a tremendous success. She sold enough copies to pay for passage to Rome, where she began her sculpting career in earnest.

Regina Caeli (plainsong)

As the threads tying Edmonia to her native beliefs unraveled, she sought a new spiritual life by converting to Catholicism.

I Vespri Siciliani

Isabel Chomeley, one of Edmonia's new Catholic friends, joined her in attending Verdi operas at the Teatro della Quattro Fontaine near her studio.

Cantico del Sol di San Francesco

Isabel introduced Edmonia to Franz Liszt, another Catholic convert who entered a monastery after the deaths of his son and daughter.

Cleopatra's Theme

After years of study and work, Edmonia created her masterpiece, The Death of Cleopatra, which she showed at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.


Different Drum

In Philadelphia, Edmonia sees John Langston, the attorney who represented her when she  was accused of attempted murder while a student at Oberlin College. They had grown close during her previous visits back to the States, and finally, Langston proposed. Edmonia was torn. Langston was now a politician; as his wife, she would be expected to give up her art.

Hi Henry's Triumphal March

In the years after Edmonia's return to Rome, her life grew quiet, centering around work and prayer. That is, until the day she learned that Buffalo's Bill's Wild West Show--featuring "wild savages"--was in Rome. She was drawn to the show, which was pervaded by a carnival atmosphere.

Tribal Drums

When Edmonia comes across the encampment where the Indian performers live, long-lost feelings of belonging returned. Her life had come full circle.