Based on the life of Frederick Douglass, the most prominent African American of the 19 th Century, Sidney Morrison has created a mesmerizing and important historical novel richly detailing the Civil War Era and the Institution of Slavery that Douglass was instrumental in ending. Frederick Douglass escapes enslavement in Maryland and becomes a prominent abolitionist leader; one of the nation’s most skilled orators; and publisher of an antislavery newspaper called The North Star . He lives with his wife, Anna Murray Douglass, who helps him escape slavery, and their five children in Rochester, New York. Frederick participates in the underground railroad and works with William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, and Presidents Abraham Lincoln to Grover Cleveland. Frederick and Lincoln become friends as the president changes his war policies, issues the Emancipation Proclamation, and enlists Black soldiers, which include Frederick’s three sons. Frederick’s advocacy for equality includes women’s suffrage and his motto for The North Star "Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color, God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren." He attends the Seneca Falls Convention and befriends Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Frederick becomes the first African American to hold esteemed political positions including U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia and Minister to Haiti. Frederick zealously controls his public image by publishing an autobiography that he updates and republishes twice keeping his family life with Anna Murray Douglass and other intimate relationships private. Julia Griffith, an English abolitionist, moves into the Douglass family home and works with Frederick at The North Star until a scandalized community whispers about an extramarital affair and she returns to England. Ottilie Assing, a German writer, moves to New Jersey to translate Frederick’s autobiography and spends summers in the Rochester family home. She dies by suicide after years of waiting for Frederick to divorce and marry her. After Anna’s death Frederick marries Helen Pitts, a white suffragist and abolitionist 20 years his junior. Frederick and Helen’s marriage ignites a firestorm with the Douglass children and the public. These women and their stories are central to portraying Frederick Douglass beyond his public persona as a fully complex human being whose life was rich in conflict, drama, and suspense. Frederick Douglass dedicated his life to racial equality and making the United States a truer democracy. Despite his fierce activism discrimination continues. Sidney Morrison spent decades researching Frederick Douglass and his novel is an homage to this central figure in U.S. and African American History.