It's tobacco planting season in Maryland. The last winter frost is five weeks past and a hint of summer is in the air. Using a wooden hoe, field slaves work the wet lumps of mud and clay in the earth into soft pellets. The work is long and back breaking, planting and harvesting season is the hardest time of the year; work is done from before sunup to after sundown getting the fields ready to be planted with "Green Gold".

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An overseer sits atop his horse with a rifle mounted at his side watching the slaves as they go about their task. The slaves are singing to take their minds off of the drudgery of their work. Even though they are not supposed to, some slaves strike up a conversation.

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However, this is not your fate. You were trained to be a carpenter and therefore, are more valuable than a field hand. While you are repairing a tobacco shed, you overhear two slaves whispering about a rumor that they had heard last night from one of the house servants. The Fisher family who owns Mount Harmon Plantation has come upon difficult times. Tobacco planting isn't as profitable as it used to be. A few years back the master had already sold off some of his land and slaves to pay his debts. Now, there is talk that more slaves will be sold this coming Sunday to a cotton planter from Alabama. Tobacco may not be what it used to be but in the Deep South, cotton is king and the demand for slaves is greater than ever.

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Your thoughts instantly race to your wife Ellen who works as a kitchen servant. The sale of slave is the one thing almost every slave fears most. Friends and family are torn apart never to see one another again. Husbands from wives, parents from children. Some have even committed suicide after a sale, unable to bear the heartbreak. Your mind is racing with paranoid thoughts but you can't stop working; that will draw the attention of the overseer and get you whipped for sure.

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Later that night when the other slaves had gone to sleep you quietly wake Ellen and slip outside to hatch a plan to escape. The free state of Pennsylvania is not too far and there are many abolitionists who help slaves escape to freedom.

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Your wife is convinced that escaping is too dangerous, especially with the Fugitive Slave Laws. If they are caught they could be whipped or hung as an example to other slaves.