A gripping book, understated & potent, this has none of the overwrought prose typical of antebellum American non-fiction. The bravery of F.D. & all those who suffered under slavery‘s grip astonishes me. He wrote of those planning escape, “We did more than Patrick Henry, when he resolved on liberty or death.” He‘s right. F.D. trenchantly noted of a once-kindly white woman turned cruel, “Slavery proved as injurious to her as to me.” Read his truths.