Freegift

Description

Freegift Cooper is born enslaved. On her death bed, his mother reveals the identity of his white father; Benedict Arnold, the most hated man in the colonies since he went over to the British. Freegift vows to search out his father and make himself known. What comes after that, he has no idea. The only proof he has is a yellowed newspaper clipping and facts only his young mother could know. Emancipated and freed from bondage, Freegifts journeys downriver to the port of New London, alive with privateers, river pirates, and the drumbeats of the American Revolution. He learns his father is in New York, an impossible distance blocked by patrolling Tories. But one day, General Benedict Arnold comes to New London, with orders to burn it to the ground. As one of the last battles of the Revolution in the north engulfs him, Freegift must face death as well as his traitorous father.