Published by Clarion Books
ISBN 0547910681 (ISBN13: 9780547910680)

SYNOPSIS
Cy Williams, thirteen, has always known that he and the other black folks on Strong’s plantation have to obey white men, no question. Sure, he’s free, as black people have been since his grandfather’s day, but in rural Georgia, that means they’re free to be whipped, abused, even killed.

Almost four years later, Cy yearns for that freedom, such as it was. Now he’s a chain gang laborer, forced to do backbreaking work, penned in and shackled like an animal, brutalized, beaten, and humiliated by the boss of the camp and his hired overseers. For Cy and the boys he’s chained to, there’s no way out, no way back.

And then hope begins to grow in him, along with strength and courage he didn’t know he had. Cy is sure that a chance at freedom is worth any risk, any sacrifice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David L. Dudley is professor of African American literature at Georgia Southern University. He lives in Twin City, Georgia, with his wife. They have four children and homeschool the younger two.