FLIGHT TO OHIO: FROM SLAVERY TO PASSING TO FREEDOM Flight to Ohio begins in 1836, as 21-year-old Tom and his mother Nellie escape slavery on a Virginia plantation. They soon discover that Tom, the bastard son of the white master, passes as white when he is not seen with his mother. Tom must make a choice as to how to live. The stakes are raised when he courts and marries 18-year-old Sarah Long, a young white woman from a respected local farm family. What is lost when identity is concealed? What price is paid? Tom s emotional story unfolds against the backdrop of the Cincinnati race riots of 1836 and 1841 and the oncoming Civil War. In a place and time beset with racism, hate, jealousy and violence, the novel s characters forge deep evolving loves, friendships, and loyalties as they move towards freedom, their ultimate goal. This is the author s imagined story of her own maternal ancestry."