The Relationship Between Blacks and Whites: Love and Betrayal

After experience a horrific family tragedy – his father is whipped and then hung until death – Robert is separated from his mother and sister when he is sold to a new owner several states away. However, he manages to make his escape to the supposedly "free" northern states, assisted by a woman running part of the famed Underground Railroad, Vicki Black, and her step-daughter, Gertrude.

Before escaping to freedom, where he plans to join with a covert army fighting to end slavery, Robert falls in love with a white plantation owner’s daughter, and the affection is returned, resulting in a child. Yet Robert’s heart also belongs to another slave, Beatrice, who also bears him a child, and it is with regret he leaves both lovers and children behind when he makes his bid for freedom.

And yet because they remain behind, he is not yet free – he finds himself faced with making a choice between color and love in the days prior to the Civil War.