Hanover Library Catalogue

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Steal away home : one woman's epic flight to freedom - and her long road back to the South / Karolyn Smardz Frost.

By: Publication details: Toronto, ON : HarperCollins Canada, c2017.Description: xxiii, 408 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm; 432 pages : illustrations, mapsISBN:
  • 9781554682515
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 306.362
Summary: The story of a fifteen-year-old escaped slave named Cecelia Reynolds, who, in 1846, slips away to freedom in Canada while her Kentucky owners holiday at Niagara Falls. Author Karolyn Smardz Frost brings Cecelia's story to life. Cecelia was a teenager when she made her dangerous bid for freedom from the United States, across the Niagara River and into Canada. Escape meant that she would never see her mother or brother again. She would be cut off from the young mistress with whom she grew up, but who also owned her. This was a time when people could be property, when a beloved father could be separated from his wife while their children were auctioned off to the highest bidder, and the son of a white master and his black housekeeper could become a slave to his own white half-sister and brother-in-law. Cecelia found a new life in Toronto's vibrant African American expatriate community. Her rescuer became her husband, a courageous conductor on the Underground Railroad helping other freedom-seekers reach Canada. Widowed, she braved the Fugitive Slave Law to cross back into the United States, where she again found love, and followed her William into the battlefields of the Civil War. Finally, with a wounded husband and young children in tow, she returned to the Kentucky she had known as a child. But her home had changed: hooded Night Riders roamed the countryside with torches and nooses at the ready. When William disappeared, Cecelia relied on the support and affection of her former mistress - the Southern belle who had owned her as a child. Only five of the letters between Cecelia and her former mistress, Fanny Thruston Ballard, have survived. They are testament to the great love and the lifelong friendship that existed between these two very different women. Reunited after years apart, the two lived within a few blocks of each other for the rest of Fanny's life. Historian, archaeologist and award-winning author Karolyn Smardz Frost is an Acadia University adjunct professor. She won the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction in 2007 for I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad.
List(s) this item appears in: Anti-racism Reading/Viewing List 2020 | Grey County Reads
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
300 - 399 Hanover Public Library Shelves BIOG 306.362 SMAR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 31906001060756

Includes bibliographical references, Internet addresses and index.

The story of a fifteen-year-old escaped slave named Cecelia Reynolds, who, in 1846, slips away to freedom in Canada while her Kentucky owners holiday at Niagara Falls. Author Karolyn Smardz Frost brings Cecelia's story to life. Cecelia was a teenager when she made her dangerous bid for freedom from the United States, across the Niagara River and into Canada. Escape meant that she would never see her mother or brother again. She would be cut off from the young mistress with whom she grew up, but who also owned her. This was a time when people could be property, when a beloved father could be separated from his wife while their children were auctioned off to the highest bidder, and the son of a white master and his black housekeeper could become a slave to his own white half-sister and brother-in-law. Cecelia found a new life in Toronto's vibrant African American expatriate community. Her rescuer became her husband, a courageous conductor on the Underground Railroad helping other freedom-seekers reach Canada. Widowed, she braved the Fugitive Slave Law to cross back into the United States, where she again found love, and followed her William into the battlefields of the Civil War. Finally, with a wounded husband and young children in tow, she returned to the Kentucky she had known as a child. But her home had changed: hooded Night Riders roamed the countryside with torches and nooses at the ready. When William disappeared, Cecelia relied on the support and affection of her former mistress - the Southern belle who had owned her as a child. Only five of the letters between Cecelia and her former mistress, Fanny Thruston Ballard, have survived. They are testament to the great love and the lifelong friendship that existed between these two very different women. Reunited after years apart, the two lived within a few blocks of each other for the rest of Fanny's life. Historian, archaeologist and award-winning author Karolyn Smardz Frost is an Acadia University adjunct professor. She won the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction in 2007 for I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad.

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