In 1859 twelve-year-old Clotee, a house slave who must conceal the fact that she can read and write, records in her diary her experiences and her struggle to decide whether to escape to freedom.

Louisa May Alcott has problems--her mother is taking a job over a hundred miles away to earn some money, leaving to it to Louisa to care for the family, her father refuses to work for money, a fugitive slave is seeking refuge in their house, and a slave catcher has been murdered, making the Underground Railroad much more dangerous.

Five accounts of black slaves who managed to escape to freedom during the period preceding the Civil War.

Sixteen-year-old Will Spencer leaves home to become a peddler, but gets more than he bargained for when he agrees to go to Kentucky, steal two slaves, and help them reach their brother in Canada.