In April 1849, seventy-six slaves – all household servants in Washington, D.C. – made a run for freedom on the schooner The Pearl. The escape was planned in part by Paul Jennings, a slave of President James Madison during and after his White House years and who later became a servant to Senator Daniel Webster. In this short-form book, New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming vividly describes the shameful circumstances that drove the slaves to flee and the unsuccessful attempts by prominent national figures – including famed educator and lawyer Horace Mann – to defend them after their capture. The incident inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe to write Uncle Tom's Cabin.