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\nBook Summary:
\n"Once old Mastuh be dead\, you be workin' in the fields just like the rest of 'em. T hat day comin' soon."
\nTwo decades before the Civil War\, a mi ddle-class farmer named Samuel Maddox lies on his deathbed. Elsewhere in h is Virginia home\, a young woman named Kitty knows her life is about to ch ange. She is one of the Maddox family's slaves--and Samuel's biological da ughter. When Samuel's wife\, Mary\, inherits her husband's property\, she will own Kitty too\, along with Kitty's three small children.
\nAlre ady in her fifties and with no children of her own\, Mary Maddox has strug gled to accept her husband's daughter\, a strong-willed\, confident\, educ ated woman who works in the house and has been treated more like family th an slave. After Samuel's death\, Mary decides to grant Kitty and her child ren their freedom\, and travels with them to Pennsylvania\, where she will file papers declaring Kitty's emancipation. Helped on their perilous flig ht by Quaker families along the Underground Railroad\, they finally reach the free state. But Kitty is not yet safe.
\nDragged back to Virgini a by a gang of slave-catchers led by Samuel's own nephew\, who is determin ed to sell her and her children\, Kitty takes a defiant step: charging the younger Maddox with kidnapping and assault. On the surface\, the move is brave yet hopeless. But Kitty has allies--her former mistress\, Mary\, and Fanny Withers\, a rich and influential socialite who is persuaded to adop t Kitty's cause and uses her resources and charm to secure a lawyer. The s ensational trial that follows will decide the fate of Kitty and her childr en--and bond three extraordinary yet very different women together in thei r quest for justice.
\nBased on little-known true events and brought vividly to life by Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist Jack Ford\, here is an astonishing account of a time when the traditions of the Old So uth still thrived\, a treacherous journey toward freedom--and a testament to determination\, friendship\, and courage. \;
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