Together and Free

Together and Free is the Civil War-era adventure of one woman’s escape from slavery, the husband she had to leave behind, and their separate journeys to find each other in the place where they can be together and free.

Did you know most escapes were unaided? It wasn't until escaping slaves reached The North that they received help. The Underground Railroad wasn't a railroad and it wasn't underground, but it is a fascinating piece of history. Together and Free uses history and fiction to weave a story of the Underground Railroad...and more.

Rachel, fifteen, was forced to become a plantation owner’s mistress. The rapes stopped when she became pregnant; the beatings started when it became obvious that Joe, another slave, had fathered her child. Not believing the rumored Emancipation Proclamation will free them, she and Joe decide to flee. At the last minute, Joe’s courage falters. Rachel, distraught, escapes with their baby into the winter night. While dogs and bounty hunters pursue them, the baby tragically dies, but Rachel makes it to Washington DC. To survive, she becomes a maid in an upscale DC brothel. Seeing Rachel’s light-skinned beauty and learning of her hidden past, the brothel owner decides to use blackmail and the threat from a notorious bounty hunter to force Rachel’s return to the sexual slavery she escaped.