In 1852 a Virginia couple traveling to Texas bring their family, including eight enslaved, through New York. Slavery is legal in Virginia and Texas but has been abolished in New York. Abolitionists, including Louis Napoleon, John Jay II and Erastus Culver, were instrumental in the legal battle to win freedom for the eight enslaved. The case follows a slow path through New York courts, in the era of the Dred Scott case of 1857 and against the background of the Fugitive Slave clause of the Constitution. But the Eight are freed in 1860.

Currently a Judicial Fellow at NYU Law School, Judge Rosenblatt was a long-serving New York state judge, ending his career on the highest court, the Court of Appeals. He brings fascinating original material about the people involved in this hugely important case.