Chains

Isabel, a thirteen-year-old enslaved girl in 1776 New York, is promised freedom in her owner's will but is instead sold — along with her younger sister Ruth — to the cruel Loyalist Anne Lockton. As the American Revolution rages around her, Isabel spies for the Patriot rebels in exchange for the promise of emancipation. When both sides betray her and Ruth is sold away, Isabel is branded on the cheek with the letter 'I' for insolence. She ultimately realizes that neither Patriot nor Loyalist will free her, and she must seize her own liberty. On Christmas night 1776, Isabel escapes across the river to New Jersey, taking the imprisoned Patriot soldier Curzon with her.

Isabel and her younger sister Ruth are enslaved in Rhode Island. When their owner, Miss Mary Finch, dies, Isabel believes they will be freed — Miss Finch's will promised it. But the executor of the estate, the lawyer Robert Finch, sells the girls instead to the Locktons, a wealthy Loyalist couple re...