Young Southern Belles who married into another elite plantation family assumed the role of plantation mistress, often as young as 18–20. Even though accustomed to plantation life, they found transitioning to the role of plantation mistress difficult. As their own diaries reveal, beneath the surface of privilege lay a private world of isolation, exhaustion, and quiet misery.

"Pap" Singleton, the “Black Moses,” saw self-sufficient Black communities in abolitionist Kansas as the “New Canaan.” Between 20,000 and 40,000 African Americans took part in this movement. In 1879 alone, about 6,000 migrants arrived in Kansas.

Following the federal troop withdrawal in 1877, white supremacists soon ruled the Southern states with violence and speed.

Lucy won her freedom after being jailed in severe conditions for 17 months. Polly and Lucy’s cases were two of 301 freedom suits filed in St. Louis between 1814 and 1860.