Ohio 1850. For a modest English Quaker stranded far from home, life is a trial. Untethered from the moment she leaves England. Fleeing personal disappointment, Honor Bright is forced by family tragedy to rely on strangers in an alien, untamed landscape. The men sweat and spit; the women drink whiskey and shoot copperheads, even as they stitch bonnets and quilts.

Nineteenth-century America is practical, precarious, and scarred by the continuing injustice of slavery. In her new home, Honor discovers that principles count for little, even within a religious community famed for championing human equality.

Drawn into the clandestine activities for the Underground Railroad, a network helping runaway slaves escape to freedom, Honor befriends two exceptional people who embody the startling power of defiance. Eventually she must decide if she too can act what she believes in, whatever the personal cost.

A powerful journey brimming with color and drama, The Last Runaway is Tracy Chevaliers vivid explanation of an ionic chapter in American history.