Freedom Dues

In this sweeping debut historical novel set in Colonial America, two young indentured servants yearn to be freeto live and to love...

1729: Blair Eakins is a fifteen-year-old Ulster-Scot living in Ireland under the crushing weight of famine, poverty, and prejudice against his people. In search of a better future for himself and his beloved, he pays for passage to the American colonies the only way he can: he commits himself as an indentured servant for a term of four years, having no idea what hes in for. His rough ocean crossing is only the beginning of a new life of hardships in Philadelphia.

In London, ten-year-old orphan pickpocket Mallie Ambrose is arrested for stealing a handkerchief. After experiencing the horror of Newgate prison, she is sentenced to "Transportation," bound into indentured servitude and exiled to the American colonies. Once in Maryland, she is sold to a tyrannical tobacco planter for seven years.

As Blair and Mallie each...