The Refugees

Two centuries. One family. The price of survival in America.

When sixteen-year-old Mary Johnson arrives in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, she dreams of freedom and a new life. But when a desperate act of violence forces her into exile, she must choose between family loyalty and forbidden love, setting in motion a legacy that will haunt her descendants for generations.

A century later, the family is thrust into the upheaval of the Revolutionary War, a time fraught with danger and hardship. While one brother fights as a minuteman, the other is accused of treason, and the hopes of economic and political freedom from their sacrifice dim.

By the 1820s, three siblings abandon their failing Massachusetts farm for the promise of Georgia gold. Their treacherous journey through the antebellum South exposes them to the brutal realities of slavery, the tragedy of Indian removal, and moral choices that will tear their family apart. In their struggles, they discover survival often demands a price too terrible to pay.

Based on the author's ancestors, The Refugees: Family Threads weaves together the stories of ordinary people caught in the sweep of history, bound by blood, faith, and the precious objects that carry their memories forward.