This novel is set in 1855, when Blackface minstrelsy is the most popular form of entertainment in a nation about to be torn apart by the battle over slavery. Henry Sims, a fugitive slave and a brilliant musician, has escaped to Philadelphia. He befriends James Douglass, leader of the Virginia Harmonists, a minstrel troup. A Free State is both a riveting chase novel and a searing parable of liberty and its costs. Charged with narrative tension and unforgettable characters, it is a thrilling work by a novelist at the height of his powers--Dust jacket.