“Karolyn Smardz Frost deftly situates Cecelia in history. Her evocative descriptions of landscapes and cityscapes capture the various times and places of Cecelia’s story.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“Frost’s calmness puts the reader at ease in the passenger seat. . . . Steal Away Home completely embodies the definition of one’s life being bittersweet.” — The Chronicle Herald

“Karolyn Smardz Frost wants readers to look beyond the stories of escaped slaved and the Underground Railroad to the ordinary—sometimes extraordinary—lives these individuals managed to build.” — Literary Review of Canada

“I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land is a fascinating tale that looks at . . . history from a fresh perspective. A key point, often forgotten in our rush to praise the Underground Railroad, is emphasized here—that the real heroes were the slaves themselves, who risked everything for freedom.” — Quill & Quire, on I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land

“A triumphant blend of archaeological and historical research with literary story-telling. Moving and informative in the best sense, [I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land] will become an instant classic.” — Governor General's Award for Non-fiction Jury Citation for I've Got a Home in Glory Land

The remarkable true story of Cecelia Jane Reynolds, a woman who valued freedom above all else

Born into bondage in Louisville, Cecelia was only fifteen years old in 1846 when she made her treacherous journey across the Niagara River. Reaching Toronto, she married Underground Railroad conductor Benjamin Holmes and began a new life. But she never forgot the beloved family members she had been forced to leave behind. 

Cecelia risked her own freedom when she wrote to her Kentucky owners asking the price of her mother’s liberty. The letter rekindled her relationship with Fanny, both her former mistress and the closest companion of her childhood. Thus began a twenty-year correspondence entirely unique in the annals of the Underground Railroad. 

Cecelia’s struggle to raise the needed funds carried her across the Atlantic and back, then from the Rochester, New York, of the great Frederick Douglass to the battlefields of the Civil War, and finally to Louisville once more. With hooded Night Riders terrorizing newly freed Blacks, Cecelia turned to Fanny for support. In spite of their differences, the two women resumed the precious but very unequal friendship that would endure for the rest of their lives.

The remarkable true story of Cecelia Jane Reynolds, who escaped on the Underground Railroad—and returned for the sake of family

Born into bondage in Louisville, Kentucky, Cecelia was only fifteen years old in 1846 when she made her perilous journey across the Niagara River. With a fellow freedom-seeker’s aid, she reached Toronto, where she married Underground Railroad conductor Benjamin Holmes and began a new life. But she never forgot the beloved family members she had been forced to leave behind.

Cecelia risked her own freedom when she wrote to her Kentucky owners asking the price of her mother’s liberty. The letter rekindled her relationship with Fanny, the Louisville belle who was both her mistress and the closest companion of her childhood, and began a twenty-year correspondence entirely unique in the annals of the Underground Railroad.

Cecelia’s struggle to raise the needed funds carried her across the Atlantic and from the Rochester, New York, of the great Frederick Douglass to the battlefields of the Civil War. At war’s end, she returned to Kentucky with her wounded husband and two small children. But hooded Night Riders roamed the countryside, terrorizing newly freed Blacks. It was to Fanny that Cecelia turned, and these two very different women resumed the precious but unequal friendship that would endure for the rest of their lives.

In this beautifully written and meticulously researched work of narrative non-fiction, Governor General’s Award winner Karolyn Smardz Frost brings Cecelia’s remarkable story to life. Skilfully woven into the complex tapestry of race relations over the last two centuries, Steal Away Home offers compelling insight into the life of a single, courageous woman who prized freedom above all else.