"In a gold-rush boomtown that has gone bust, a prospector strikes gold - and is murdered. Sheriff James Ambrose assumes the killer to be a newcomer, a former enslaved person who calls himself Cicero. But as it becomes clear that Cicero is innocent, and as the mystery of the prospector's death deepens and puts the whole town in jeopardy, the town's new minister, Thaddeus Murphy must stand up to Sheriff Ambrose and bring the true culprit to justice."...

Recounts the story of the underground railroad through narratives of escaped slaves. Includes interviews with descendants of slaves and slave holders, who describe the personal danger and terrible risk involved in each slave's departure.

Americans are familiar with the removal of Cherokees in the infamous "Trail of Tears," but the involvement of African-American slaves is far less known. When the US Indian Removal Act forced Native Americans to relinquish their native land and move west, countless slaves followed them into the frontier, bound and shackled.