The Flight of a Slave

Driven to debt by selfish indulgence, Shelby sells Uncle Tom and little Harry Harris to the conniving Haley to cover his debts. The plan has gone of smoothly—he will meet with his wife in the evening to inform her of the sale, too late for her to correct the situation. Everything is going as well as could be expected . . . or is it?

Eliza Harris, Harry’s mother, overheard the transaction between her Master and the slave trader. Were she asked to do anything else for her Master, she would—but part with her son? It just cannot be done. Quickly and quietly Eliza packs a bag for herself and her young son. At midnight she slips from the Shelby house and heads for the rows of slave cabins. She must find Uncle Tom.

Tom and Chloe hear a soft rap on their door just as they are heading to bed—the evening’s worship and praise service went well into the night and the last slaves just left for their own cabins. Who then, could be at the door? As the door opens, Tom and Chloe see Eliza, pale and nervous, anxiously standing before them clutching her young son. 

No power of persuasion will convince Uncle Tom to flee North with Eliza and Harry—not the cries of his wife, not the thought of the harsh slavery in the South—Tom knows his place, and it is serving his Master, whomever that may be.

But he won’t discourage another slave from running.

With a blessing from Uncle Tom and Aunt Chloe, Eliza runs into the darkness, desperately seeking to save her son from the New Orleans slave auctions. Eliza hurries along motivated by pure adrenaline until she reaches the Ohio River. Stranded on the Kentucky side until the ice breaks up, Eliza lays Harry down and rests uneasily as the morning breaks.

Eliza runs for freedom and for love. By leaving the Shelby’s, she risks separating herself from the only world she has ever known—knowing that she will never see it again. Will she and Harry make it to Canada? Will she find her husband along the way? Or is the flight of this slave just another sad story for the martyrdom?

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