Benediction

In a West African village, Abeni, a willowy fifteen-year old, awaits the initiation that will complete her journey to adulthood. A world away, in a Baltimore tavern, Caleb Lawson a striking young man from a small town in western New York -- is being plied with liquor by two crafty southerners. The year is 1859, and the United States is edging ever closer to disunion. A clandestine plot to revive the Atlantic slave trade brings the lives of the African girl and the Yankee together, forging a love that challenges slavery, imprisonment, and the violence of the Civil War.