Louisa May Alcott has problems--her mother is taking a job over a hundred miles away to earn some money, leaving to it to Louisa to care for the family, her father refuses to work for money, a fugitive slave is seeking refuge in their house, and a slave catcher has been murdered, making the Underground Railroad much more dangerous.

In the Vermont spring of 1853, Bell's Star, a Morgan horse, and his owner Katie rescue a runaway slave and try to outwit the slave catchers in order to help her to freedom.

One night in 1861, three escaped slaves made their way from the Confederate line to a Union-held fort. The runaways were declared "contraband of war" and granted protection. As word spread, thousands of runaway slaves poured into the fort, seeking their freedom. These "contrabands" made a home for themselves, building the first African American community in the country. In 1863, they bore witness to one of the first readings of the Emancipation Proclamation...