Overview of racial attitudes of Northern whites during the 1800s. Covers property rights, dissent, abolition, religion, and constitutional conflicts.

Discusses the flight of fugitive slaves and the key role of white allies in establishing Waverly’s black settlement. Traces its peak and demise, and the mixed attitudes of white neighbors.

Looks at one of Waverly’s main black Civil War regiments and at the home-front conflicts over Lincoln, Southern secession, the draft, and black men in uniform.

Chronicles Waverly’s other principal black regiment and its heroism. Looks at both the praise the men won and the unremitting scorn they felt from Northern ‘Copperheads.’

About the lives of fugitive George Keys and his free-born sons, spanning slavery, the Underground Railroad, combat, postwar help and challenges, and a burst of political activism.