The Price of a Child

An intimate, gripping novel of the antebellum Underground Railroad, based on the true story of a valiant Philadelphia freedwoman—a debut novel from the author of the “stunning memoir” Black Ice (New York Times).

"A stunning achievement ... a deeply engrossing story." —The Philadelphia Inquirer

With Price of a Child—the story of Ginnie Pryor (cook, mistress and servant to a Virginia planter) and her struggle with slavery in 1855—Lorene Cary continues has created a work that elevates the reputation she created with Black Ice, her memoir which won her comparisons to Maya Angelou and Richard Wright. In a novel that examines the price of freedom and the value of a child's life, Cary has created an authentic American heroine—a woman who finds voice for the appalling loss and bitterness of her past, and who creates within herself a new humanity.