New York, NY: Doubleday (2002)

David Anthony Durham, the critically acclaimed author of Gabriel’s Story, presents us with a brilliantly drawn account of America before the Civil War and a provocative meditation on freedom and equality. After learning that his pregnant wife has been taken to Philadelphia, William flees a harsh Maryland plantation and begins a desperate flight north to reunite with her and establish a new life as a free man. But as a fugitive slave in hostile country, William must endure a terrifying journey and elude the many who wish to capture and return him to the plantation. Among those tracking him is Morrison, who as a young man fled the miseries of his native Scotland only to encounter the brutal realities of the New World. Bearing his own scars, Morrison follows William with an agenda much more personal than returning him to slavery.