In 1729, enslaved Africans made a well-planned, well-equipped flight from eastern Virginia to the Shenandoah Valley.
Their brave effort failed.
In this novel, Bloodroot Cantons, history takes a different turn. The escaped Africans temporarily ally with a Shawnee band to deter the pursuing slave-catchers. As their links deepen, the two communities create a refuge from the invading and enslaving British colonial power. Then, called by justice, good farmland, and dissatisfaction with increasingly ungodly Pennsylvania, a third group – Anabaptists and Quakers – joins them. A new hope arises in the Blue Ridge from these varied traditions – and from songs and dreams, and from the talents of women and men, young and old, mother and warrior, sage and craftswoman. Can ingenuity and patient sharing of wisdoms overcome with British military threat, and earn the Bloodroot Cantons their season in history?
