by Minnette Coleman (Author)

Her entire life Epsie has heard whispers about the Tree. When she can longer tolerate her own devastation and her friends' suffering, she leaves in the night, knowing that her only chance for salvation is the Tree, the Underground Railroad, and the Quakers that man it. If a running-away can reach the Tree's safety, he or she can escape the dangerous slave patrols.

The legend of the Tree circulating throughout the slave community is one that few dare speak of. In hushed voices they whisper that no slave can be harmed near it or hung from its branches.

A harrowing historical fiction, Epsie's journey from slave to free woman reveals the lengths one has to traverse when the goal is freedom.

Author Biography

Minnette Coleman is the author of The Blacksmith's Daughter and No Death by Unknown Hands, both historical novels. An active member of the Harlem Writers Guild, Coleman also wrote Hand-Me-Downs, a one-woman show that she toured across the United States.

Her research for The Tree began after she graduated from Guilford College, on whose campus grows a centuries-old tree that is part of the Underground Railroad tour and history. As historian for the Black Alumni Advisory Board of Guilford College, Coleman researched how this tree served as a focal point for "running aways" and the Quakers who helped them.

Coleman's father was the city editor of the Atlanta Daily World, and her grandfather was one of the city's last blacksmiths. A wife, mother, and grandmother, Coleman lives in New York.

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