Daniel Webster Jackson & the Wrongway Railroad

In this rousing 1852 romp through the eerie woods surrounding Hannibal, Missouri, and up and down the Mississippi River, fourteen-year-old Daniel Webster Jackson runs into a counterfeit Underground Railroad when he decides to run away from his foster home. At every turn he musters courage to survive in a land where the law is at odds with the heart and soul of a people, where The Missouri Compromise forces everyone into a disguise or a secret identity.

Daniel, a white teenager, assumes a Black identity and becomes a hero. George appears to be a Black slaver, but he is really a freed Black man and a superb forger of papers for travelers on the Underground Railroad. Colonel Halverston carries an air of mystery about himself and his plantation because he resigned his commission at West Point to take over the plantation, complete with slaves. Really, he operates an elaborate railroad station from it. Sheriff Brisbane meanly enforces slave laws, and also pretends to run a railroad station, however, his passengers end up in Deep South instead of up North. Billy, the wise old Black story teller on Colonel Halverston's plantation could be free at any time, but remains to be a highly visible slave who fuels the eerie quality about disappearing slaves through his scary stories... and keeps everyone who snoops off-balance about the truth. John Fairfield is the greatest white conductor of them all, and a grandmaster of disguise. His Colfax Excursion Line cruise boat is pure magic and moxie. The Black counterfeit tourist passengers, led by big Daisy, (who knew all along that Daniel was white and who turns out to be George's mother) will certainly have a place henceforth in young adult literature.

The historical content of the novel is impeccable, and the characters are wonderful. There is plenty of action and adventure in this American yarn that follows in the spirit of Mark Twain spiced with Alexander Dumas. A serious quest is tempered with great humanity and humor. The well-told story makes the reader want to jump into its pages as a character.