Slave, Brave, and Free

Three Boys, Three Cultures, One Will to Survive.

Lost and alone in the wilderness . . . where did they belong now?

Okot (pronounced "Oh-Coat") Deng knew no other world than the African savannah where his Dinka tribesmen lived a peaceful existence -- until he was captured and sold as a slave to the owner of a Virginia tobacco plantation. His hatred for white men and their God grows as he is punished and starved, until he knows he must be free or die. Can he find a home with other runaways in Upper Canada?

Chipagawana is the proud son of Onondaga Chief Thunder Arm. He lives for the day he will take his place beside his brothers as a brave of his tribe. He has learned to hate the white man, whose whiskey makes fools of the wisest braves and whose God-houses anger the Great Spirit. But then he is mauled by a bear and finds himself lost in the bush, alone and dying. If he is going to survive he has to make a decision . . . Is he willing to receive help from the enemy?

Paul Brentwood is the son of a circuit riding preacher who left England to bring God's Word to the Iroquois Tribe in Upper Canada. But Paul has a reason to hate, too. The Indians who massacred his best friend's family have now ambushed his father. He was raised in the bush so survival was no problem . . . if he can remain undetected by the Iroquois scouts as he finds his way home to get an answer to the burning question . . . Did his father make it? Is he still alive?

These three would never have met but for a strange twist of fate -- or is it the Hand of Providence? -- that forces them together in a way that changes their lives, and the lives of those around them, forever.