The Last Runaway
by Tracy Chevalier
The story takes place in rural Ohio in 1850. A young Quaker woman named Honor Bright has recently moved from England to join her new husband. Ohio was a sparsely settled frontier and Honor is shocked by the uncouth and raw experience of the New World. As a Quaker Abolitionist, Honor is most upset by the reality of slavery. Even though Ohio isn't a slave state, it serves as a major route on the Underground Railroad and runaways regularly cross the family property. The Haymaker family refuse to offer them food or shelter or hide them when a local slave hunter comes to track them down. Honor is horrified but learns the costs of standing up for one's moral beliefs. Ms. Chelvalier continues to write great historical fiction in the tradition of The Girl with the Pearl Earring", and Remarkable Creatures, this time in the United States.
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