One woman's status is seared into her skin. The other has no freedom. Can they disrupt a colony built on privilege before they face the gallows? Chesapeake Bay, 1747. Sarah Wise would give anything to feel safe. Homeless and mourning her kidnapped little girl, the widowed housekeeper makes a shrewd decision to accept a marriage offer from wealthy shipping tradesman Robert Morris, Sr. But after she witnesses the abuse of his slaves and he brands her with the company seal, she's petrified she'll always be a mistress and never a wife. Yearie longs for a more just system. Endlessly loyal to the young mother who controls her manumission, the enslaved woman works hard to open her owner's eyes. But as her heart burns for a man she can't openly love, she's terrified change is slowly slipping through her fingers. In this harrowing journey into pre-Revolutionary America, B.B. Shamp brings to life the true fighting spirit of women suffering under an iron-fisted patriarchal society.

One woman's status is seared into her skin. The other has no freedom. Can they disrupt a colony built on privilege before they face the gallows? Chesapeake Bay, 1747. Sarah Wise would give anything to feel safe. Homeless and mourning her kidnapped little girl, the widowed housekeeper makes a shrewd decision to accept a marriage offer from wealthy shipping tradesman Robert Morris, Sr. But after she witnesses the abuse of his slaves and he brands her with the company seal, she's petrified she'll always be a mistress and never a wife. Yearie longs for a more just system. Endlessly loyal to the young mother who controls her manumission, the enslaved woman works hard to open her owner's eyes. But as her heart burns for a man she can't openly love, she's terrified change is slowly slipping through her fingers. In this harrowing journey into pre-Revolutionary America, B.B. Shamp brings to life the true fighting spirit of women suffering under an iron-fisted patriarchal society.