In search of the promised land: a slave family in the Old South

Sally Thomas: a life in bondage. Virtual freedom ; Sally's children ; Sally's son James ; Sally's grandchildren: the Rapier boys

From slavery to freedom. The domestic slave trade ; James Thomas: the boyhood years ; Barbershop

Travels in the north and west. Nashville's Black community ; The changing attitudes of whites ; A fugitive slave in the north ; The California gold rush ; The epidemic's shadow

In search of Canaan. Bound for Nicaragua ; The dilemma of John Rapier Sr. ; The Minnesota territory ; Canada West and James Thomas Rapier

The Midwest, Haiti, and Jamaica. Into "Bleeding Kansas" ; Steamboating on the Mississippi ; John Rapier Jr. in the Caribbean

This mighty scourge of war. James Thomas in St. Louis ; John Rapier Jr.'s continuing odyssey ; The war's end

Afterword: through the prism of a black family

Appendix 1. Petitions of Ephraim Foster and James Thomas to the Davidson county court

John Rapier Sr. to Richard Rapier, April 8, 1845

Appendix 3. John Rapier Jr. to James Thomas, July 28, 1861.