This is the historically accurate novel of one of the most quietly extraordinary women in American history. The mother of thirteen, and the wife of John Brown, she is forgotten, yet integral part of the march towards the abolition of slavery. She watched and helped shape many of the major actors in that battle, from Kansas to Harper's Ferry.Who was Mary Anne Brown? A wife and a mother? Yes. Also, a farmer, cook, seamstress, nurse, teacher and single parent for much of the time. How did she survive her hardships as she moved from town to town, from state to state? How did she bury her four young children who died in an epidemic? What was she thinking, feeling, when Frederick was killed in Kansas? When Watson and Oliver were killed at Harper's Ferry? When her husband was hanged? When she was widowed, with little resources?Woven into Mary's story are chapters about Prudence Crandall (who enrolled Negro children in her Female Seminary), Lucy Stone (feminist and anti-slavery activist), Araminta Ross (Harriet Tubman), and Mary Todd Lincoln.