The story is populated by an array of complex, conflicted and compelling characters, including the central figure in the saga. Kitty (slaves did not generally have legal last names in that era) was born a slave in Virginia around 1816. Her biological father was her master, Samuel Maddox, a middle class farmer in the Virginia Piedmont area, who was married to Mary Maddox. Taught by her master (who apparently treated her more like a family member than a slave) to read and write, Kitty was, by all accounts, a strong-willed and confident young woman. She had three small children, who were fathered by a local free black man, and worked in the Maddox farmhouse rather than in the fields.
When Samuel Maddox died in 1845, his will appeared to leave all of his property, including his farm and slaves, to his wife. Mary, who was childless and in her 50s, had a curious and complicated relationship with Kitty. Although she had accepted the young slave girl into her home and had not generally been unkind to her, she nevertheless struggled with the fact that her husband had fathered Kitty. After her husband’s death, Mary decided to free Kitty and her three children. However, her husband’s nephew, also named Samuel Maddox, claimed that the will gave him a right to his uncle’s property and threatened to seize Kitty and her children and sell them. The younger Samuel Maddox was a charming, yet disreputable, ruffian whose business failures had left him desperate for cash; he saw the sale of Kitty and her family as his only chance for financial salvation.
KITTY: A slave, in her twenties, born on a farm in Virginia. Her biological father was her white master, Samuel Maddox, who taught her to read and write, treating her more like a family member than a slave. She is smart, beautiful, and strong-willed. Intent on preserving her new-found freedom, she survives beatings and captivity, and defiantly forces her claim into a Virginia courtroom, setting the stage for one of the most extraordinary trials in the history of the ante-bellum South.
MARY MADDOX: Kitty’s mistress, she is in her late 50s. Her husband was Kitty’s father and this fact, along with his paternal bond with Kitty, has created a painful and difficult relationship for the two women. After her husband’s death, she reaches a strained rapport with Kitty. Eventually, she grants Kitty her freedom and fights to help her preserve it.
FANNY WITHERS: An unlikely ally for Kitty, she is one of the richest and most beautiful women in the county, with an independent Scarlett O’Hara-like personality. Rejecting the traditional notions of life as a Southern belle, she has accumulated her own land holdings and has remained unmarried into her 30s. Conflicted by the pressures of her social status and traditions, she is nevertheless convinced by her friend, Mary Maddox, to come to Kitty’s aid, and becomes her champion through the course of the trial.
SAMUEL MADDOX: The nephew (carrying the same name) of Kitty’s biological father. Brutish, yet possessed of a certain Southern charm, he is romantically involved with the sister of Fanny Withers. With his farm failing and beset by debt, he claims ownership of Kitty and her children (through a confusing clause in the elder Samuel Maddox’s will) and intends to sell her and her family to slave traders to raise desperately needed funds. Angered by the flight of Kitty and Mary Maddox to the safety of Pennsylvania, he leads a gang of slave-catchers who capture Kitty and forcibly return her to Virginia. When Kitty brings a case against him, charging him with kidnapping and assault, he is thrust into a central role in the sensational trial.
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Jack Ford Author of Chariot On The Mountain 