From Midnight to Dawn

The Underground Railroad was the passage to freedom for many slaves, but it was rife with dangers. While there were dedicated conductors and safe houses, there were also arduous nights in the mountains and days in threatening towns. For those who made it to Midnight, the code name given to Detroit, the Detroit River became their Jordan. And Canada became the Promised Land where they could live freely in black settlements, one known as Dawn, under the protection of British law. This book presents the men and women who established the Railroad and the people who traveled it. Some are well known, like Harriet Tubman and John Brown, but there are equally heroic, less familiar figures here as well. The book evokes the turmoil and controversies of the time, including the furor over Uncle Tom's Cabin, congressional confrontations in Washington, and fierce disputes among black settlers in Canada.--From publisher description.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.