Readers discovered Tracy Chevalier’s historical fiction
with the bestselling Girl with a
Pearl Earring (1999). The
Last Runaway, Chevalier’s first historical novel set in the
United States, is as good but not as well known, perhaps because it
doesn’t feature a famous person. Its protagonist is a fictional
character, a young Quaker woman from England who gets caught up in the
plight of escaped slaves in 1850s America.
Honor Bright was asked by her sister, Grace, to accompany her to Ohio,
where a man from their hometown is waiting to marry her. Honor’s own
fiancee had jilted her, giving her another incentive to go. Grace
tragically dies before they reach their destination. After rooming with
her sister’s fiancee and his widowed sister-in-law, Honor marries a
local Quaker, Jack Haymaker, and joins him, his sister, and their
domineering mother on a farm. The Underground Railroad runs right by
their property, and Honor wants to help the escapees. Even though
Quakers oppose slavery, the Haymakers object because they lost their
husband/father and property in the South for helping escaped slaves.
Honor is caught between the Haymakers’ restrictions and her own
principles.
The Last Runaway is a
well-researched book. Readers learn not only about the Underground
Railroad but also quilting (Honor is a master quilter) and the
rough-and-tumble ways of a US town in the mid-19th century. The
characters are strong as well, especially a milliner who takes Honor in
and shows her an example of courage.
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