"Aaron, born into hard servitude, had a phrase for it that he took from an old spiritual: 'We are all God's children.'"
Chap. 1, p. 6

"The constant fighting, looting, and killing left many people with a numbed, often casual attitude toward violence. Soon, the country acquired a reputation as 'Bloody Edgefield' because of its high number of murders."
Chap. 1, p. 7

"It seems to be a law of nature that slavery is equally destructive to the master and the slave. For, whilst it stupefies the latter with fear, and reduces him below the condition of man, it brutalizes the former, by the practice of continual tyranny; and makes him the prey of all the vices which render human nature loathsome."
Chap. 2, p. 22

"For Aaron Bosket, it was the long-awaited day of Jubilee."
Chap. 3, p. 35

"It is almost a daily occurrence for black men to be hunted down with dogs...