Arkansas, 1848
"Five years of sweat, sin, and tears- constant toil against the resurrected bodies of weeds.  It was the cost of progress.  Somewhere, lost among all that cotton was Ned, Clara, and the others.  Blande reached for Mary's hand as he read the scribbled words.  Right or wrong, words, like weeds, endure progress."    

      Arkansas, 1843.  It was the South where lives were purchased.  It was the frontier where lives were taken.  Richard Blande was the first to break ground west of the Red River.  20 slaves- the benchmark for achieving planter status, society's elite, and Blande was well on his way.  Among those spilling their sweat and tears on that ground were Ned, Ruby, and Clara.  From seed to harvest, their task was to produce riches from the earth- cotton.  They broke their backs, season after season, they uprooted the weeds that found their way into Blande's fields.  Only death ended the cycle.  But how did you measure the return on a life?  

500 dollars.  It was the going rate for an able body.  But some men, like Ned's friend Ezra, were invaluable.  Without saying a word, Ezra was by his side to solve the problems coming at the hands of the overseers.  But problems returned like weeds and lacking the freedom to change his course, life in Blande's fields felt a lot like death.  

For some, like Ruby, the abuses of the overseers were too much- escape provided the only hope.  But there was wilderness beyond the fields and freedom was dangerous.  Survival depended on help from her friends.  

Sarah Blande, Richard's sister, had a history with that wilderness- her time in captivity out West, taken in an Indian raid, tore her family apart.  Could she now be counted among Ruby's friends? 

It was hard work separating the weeds from the harvest.  And the weeds always returned to the fields.