FREEDOM DUES

Narrator Sarah-Jane Drummey takes on this complex story of life in the American colonies from 1729 through 1739. Fifteen-year-old Blair Eakins, an Ulster-Scot, signs up as indentured servant for four years to pay for passage to Philadelphia. In London, 10-year-old sweet-voiced Mallie Ambrose, an orphaned pickpocket, is imprisoned for stealing and then transported to Maryland, where she also enters indentured servitude. Drummey smoothly shifts accents to emulate the panoply of English, Irish, French, French-German, and Swedish characters, ranging from established colonists to slaves and servants, who populate America. Blair and Mallie both survive cruel owners who are quick with iron fists, stinging whips, and many lies. When they escape the same owner, the pair find temporary respite together in Delaware. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2022]