[Jump Ship to Freedom] details a young black's involvement in the constitutional compromise that left intact the brutal slave system. War Comes to Willy Freeman details the events that preceded those depicted in that work.

Willy Freeman is a free, thirteen-year-old black girl living in Revolutionary War Connecticut. After witnessing the brutal slaying of her father by the British, she returns home to find that her mother has disappeared. Her search for her mother takes place against a backdrop of the war's final months and the efforts of Captain Ivers to re-enslave her. This novel is one of a precious few which discuss the plight of blacks during the Revolution: Do they believe the promises of freedom tended by both the British and the Americans? Unfortunately, while we are privy to Willy's thoughts about this momentous issue, we never really get involved in her drama. A disappointing novel...