Summary

Ridgeway – This chapter describes the youth and maturation of Arnold Ridgeway. Raised the son of a blacksmith, Ridgeway refused to follow in his father’s footsteps, eventually becoming a patroller, or hunter of escaped slaves. Ridgeway spent much of his career in the North, capturing escaped slaves and sending them back to their masters. After the eventual death of his father, Ridgeway moved back south to take over the running of his father’s business and to continue his own business of chasing and capturing slaves.

Ridgeway was called in by the Randall family in the aftermath of Cora and Caesar’s escape; his failure to capture the escaped Mabel continued to haunt him. He realizes there is a spur of the underground railroad in Georgia, and he becomes determined to destroy it.

South Carolina, Part 1, 84 – 94. This chapter is prologued with another reward poster...