The great escape of the African slaves out of bondage in the South in the 1850s and 1860s is told through the dramatic and danger-filled story of one young man, Tice, and his escape to Canada on the "underground railroad."
The 19-year-old, God-fearing Tice runs from his master's plantation in Maysville, Kentucky, and swims the Ohio River to Ripley, Ohio, where he is connected to a network of people who rush him northeastward, ever northeastward toward New Brunswick, Canada. Always pursued by the ruthless Morgan, his master's foreman.
Christian and Jewish families, even Henry David Thoreau, help Tice, who they find likeable, friendly and even funny despite his life of misery.
Near the end of Tice's journey, one teenage boy in an "underground railroad" family becomes particularly close to him and another escaping slave who has renamed himself "Freeborn." This boy, Caleb Chadwick, is instrumental in the penultimate leg in Tice and Freeborn's escape when he takes them via horse-drawn wagon from Vassalboro to Bangor, Maine.
