Wilhelmina Freeman

Known as "Willy" to her family and friends, she is thirteen on the day she sees the British arriving in the town near her home. Willy is a self-confident girl and is the daughter of a free couple. Her parents, Jordan and Lucy, have taught her to think for herself but she knows that a black woman is never truly free. Willy is present at the fort the day her father is killed and returns home to discover that her mother is missing. She's immediately cast into a pit of despair and cries herself to sleep. But once she's over that initial bout of crying, she knows that she has to take control of her situation. She travels to her aunt's home but finds herself in danger of being returns to slavery. She then goes to New York City, believing that she can find her mother there...