Flight to Ohio: From Slavery to Passing to Freedom

FLIGHT TO OHIO:
FROM SLAVERY TO PASSING TO FREEDOM

“Flight to Ohio” begins in 1836, as 21-year-old Tom and his mother Nellie escape slavery on a Virginia plantation. They soon discover that Tom, the bastard son of the white master, passes as white when he is not seen with his mother. Tom must make a choice as to how to live. The stakes are raised when he courts and marries 18-year-old Sarah Long, a young white woman from a respected local farm family.

What is lost when identity is concealed? What price is paid? Tom’s emotional story unfolds against the backdrop of the Cincinnati race riots of 1836 and 1841 and the oncoming Civil War. In a place and time beset with racism, hate, jealousy and violence, the novel’s characters forge deep evolving loves, friendships, and loyalties as they move towards freedom, their ultimate goal.

This is the author’s imagined story of her own maternal ancestry. (Mary Anderson Parks Flight to Ohio)