Escape on the Pearl: The Heroic Bid for Freedom on the Underground Railroad

On the evening of April 15, 1848, seventy-seven enslaved Americans set sail from Washington, DC, on a fifty-four ton schooner named the Pearl. They had just begun the largest known escape attempt in the history of the Underground Railroad. Mary Kay Ricks tells the gripping tale of this endeavor in Escape on the Pearl.

Although the Pearl was captured, the attempt galvanized both sides of the slavery debate, as slave traders arranged to bring the escapees back to captivity, and abolitionists used the incident to cast a damning light of the institution of slavery. Ricks also focuses on the story of Mary and Emily Edmonson, two sisters who set out to reach the free states, but instead found themselves on the path to a much greater adventure. Escape on the Pearl is a riveting true story that brings to life the controversy and conflict surrounding slavery in America.

Mary Kay Ricks is the recognized expert on the Pearl incident. A former attorney at the Department of Labor, Ricks is the founder of a historical walking tour company that highlights the Underground Railroad and Civil War history in Washington, DC. She has written numerous articles about Washington for travel magazines.

"Thanks to Ricks's meticulous research, long forgotten men and women speak to us again at last, from within the dark heart of American slavery." -- Fergus Borderwich, author of Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America

--Ann Hagedorn, author of Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad