The Last Runaway

Name: The Last Runaway
Rating: 4.2 (7880 reviews)

by Tracy Chevalier

First published 2013

Amazon

4.2(7,880)

In 1850, Honor Bright leaves Dorset with her sister and emigrates to a Quaker community near Oberlin, Ohio. Her sister dies before they reach their intended home, leaving Honor dependent on strangers and unable to return across the Atlantic. She tries to adapt through marriage, farm work and quilting, but American Quakers prove divided between opposition to slavery and fear of violating federal law.

When fugitive enslaved people ask for help, Honor becomes involved with the Underground Railroad and forms alliances with the free Black abolitionist Belle Mills and the milliner Mrs Reed. Assisting escapees brings her into conflict with Donovan, a slave hunter whose attraction to her complicates their opposition. The novel places personal conscience against the Fugitive Slave Act, asking how far principles matter when acting on them threatens family, community and physical safety.