Joan Lowery Nixon

In Williamsburg, Virginia, two years before the start of the American Revolution, nine-year-old Maria worries that her mother will lose her contract to publish official reports and announcements of the British government because she prints anti-British articles in their family-run newspaper.

Twelve-year-old Will's father is the gaoler for the city of Williamsburg. As Will does his chores at the jail, he becomes sympathetic to some of the prisoners, particularly Emmanuel, a runaway slave. Then Will starts to suspect that Emmanuel is planning to escape.

When their widowed mother can no longer support them, six siblings are sent on the orphan train by the Children's Aid Society of New York City to live with farm families in Missouri in 1860.