The Day They Came to Arrest the Book

Though Hentoff never names the state or city where the novel takes place, he does name the institution: George Mason High School. Though not as well-known as other founding fathers, Mason was a key leader for the state of Virginia and the fledgling United States as they transitioned from European colonies to states within a single nation. Mason is highly relevant to the context—and greater themes—of the book. He fought diligently for the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution. Among those amendments, the right to freedom of speech comes first. It is ironic, then, that a heated debate about the preservation, use, and limitations of the freedom of speech should play out in a school named for Mason.

Second, as the child of a plantation owner, Mason inherited his family’s property in Virginia, and with it, his deceased father’s enslaved workers. Ironically, in the lengthy debate over the Constitution’s provisions, Mason also fought vigorously to outlaw slavery in the new nation. Thus, “George Mason” High School is an especially appropriate setting for a controversy over the freedom of speech involving a book about freeing a runaway slave.

Hentoff also makes use of