The best in historical fiction, this book is based on the life of Mary Bowser, a slave freed by her owner, who would go on to be educated in Philadelphia and ultimately return to the South where she lived once again as a slave and became a Union spy.  The novel brings to life Philadelphia and Richmond before and during the Civil War as author Lois Leveen introduces us to an African American heroine who worked at grave risk to do her part to insure that the Civil War would mean the end of slavery.