Frank Carlson Library

Jasmine Houston, a widow with a young son, agrees to harbor former slaves at her horse farm outside of Lowell, even though her father, a plantation owner, supports slavery. When a boardinghouse keeper unwittingly becomes involved with a traveling peddler who sells something infinitely more valuable than shoes, Jasmine is devastated to discover that her son and the former slaves have been kidnapped. Jasmine's determination to free them threatens to...

For freed slave Honey Boutrille, "justice" is a word that no longer bears any weight. After he saves the life of a prostitute by shooting her white, would-be killer, the price on Honey's head sends him on the run. As he narrowly escapes scrape after scrape, he learns to keep one eye in front of him and one eye on his back. In California, "Twice" Emmerson begins a crime spree. His inflated pride and deadly temper make him a threat to anyone who...

"Hattie Jacobs and her family join the Great Exodus of 1879 in search of a better life in Kansas"--

"In the waning days of the Civil War, brothers Prentiss and Landry, freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, seek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife, Isabelle. The Walkers, wracked by the loss of their only son to the war, hire the brothers to work their farm, hoping through an unexpected friendship to stanch their grief. Prentiss and Landry, meanwhile, plan to save money for the journey north and a chance to reunite with their mother,...

Bestselling author Mary Jo Putney weaves a new tale in the Guardian series—a dazzling romantic fantasy that takes readers not only from the elegant streets of London to a dangerously tempting Mediterranean island but across time. Jean Macrae’s family is one of the most prominent clans of Guardians, humans whose magical powers come from nature, but Jean considers her skills modest at best. She has never been able to summon the intense, earth-altering...

Against the backdrop of the War for Independence, two intriguing storylines emerge. Stuart Brodie is a black freedman from Charles Town who owns a tavern in the backcountry of South Carolina. On his return from the war, he finds his younger brother, Ezekiel, hanging from the limb of a tree, his tavern burned to the ground, and a note warning any passerby that this is what lies in store for all Tories. Knowing that the guilty party was allied with...

"A descendant of a slave named Coreen, and-according to oral tradition-her owner, President James Madison, finally shares her family's story."--

In Charleston, South Carolina, in 1865, ten-year-old Eli and other newly freed slaves gather to honor the memory of fallen Union soldiers, an event considered to be one of the first celebrations of what is now called Memorial Day. Includes author's note.

In a poignant meditation on love and loss, Sadie, the abandoned wife of the slave Jim from Mark Twain's the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn details her romance with Jim, an ambitious young slave. His decision to run away with a young white boy named Huck Finn, and the bleak repercussions of that decision for her and their children. A deeply moving recasting of one of the most controversial characters in American literature, Huckleberry Finn's Jim,...