{"product_id":"to-free-a-family-the-journey-of-mary-walker-9780674725942","title":"To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat was it like for a mother to flee slavery  leaving her children behind? To Free a Family tells the remarkable story of Mary Walker  who in August 1848 fled her owner for refuge in the North and spent the next seventeen years trying to recover her family. Her freedom  like that of thousands who escaped from bondage  came at a great priceremorse at parting without a word  fear for her familys fate.  This story is anchored in two extraordinary collections of letters and diaries  that of her former North Carolina slaveholders and that of the northern familySusan and Peter Lesleywho protected and employed her. Sydney Nathanss sensitive and penetrating narrative reveals Mary Walkers remarkable persistence as well as the sustained collaboration of black and white abolitionists who assisted her. Mary Walker and the Lesleys ventured half a dozen attempts at liberation  from ransom to ruse to rescue  until the end of the Civil War reunited Mary Walker with her son and daughter.  Unlike her more famous counterpartsHarriet Tubman  Harriet Jacobs  and Sojourner Truthwho wrote their own narratives and whose public defiance made them heroines  Mary Walkers efforts were protracted  wrenching  and private. Her odyssey was more representative of women refugees from bondage who labored secretly and behind the scenes to reclaim their families from the South. In recreating Mary Walkers journey  To Free a Family gives voice to their hidden epic of emancipation and to an untold story of the Civil War era.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45953266778165,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674725948","price":25.08,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674725942.jpg?v=1788183532","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/to-free-a-family-the-journey-of-mary-walker-9780674725942","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}