Last Stop Freedom

The author has done a remarkable job taking us back into the pre-Civil War era. It was a time that left a dark spot in the history of our country. While this book is historical fiction, the atrocities it mentions were all too real.

This is the story of a young woman named Julia who keeps house for her preacher father and acts as his assistant. She has no friends and is resigned to a life alone. One day she receives an invitation to spend a couple of weeks with her cousins and uncle at a resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. She accepts even though her father refuses to bless the trip. While there, she meets a man named Nathaniel Hamilton who owns a plantation in the South and represents the southern way of life as superior to all others. In particular, he claims that his slaves are treated as trusted servants and are content in their lives.

They are instantly attracted to one another. Julia accepts his marriage proposal and moves with him to his plantation, where she soon discovers the truth about the horrors of slavery. From there on you will learn about the Underground Railroad and the Abolitionist movement, as well as the manner in which slaves were really treated. I pray we have learned from the past to never judge others. Yet at the same time I pray for forgiveness from others also.

Don’t let the number of pages in this book put you off. While reading it, I often had to stop and do other things. But each time I picked it up again, I found it was just as fascinating as when I started it.
This book gets a five star rating from me.