Reading Cate Lineberry’s Be Free or Die (St. Martin’s, 231 pp., *** out of four stars) is a little like recovering a national heirloom that was lost, stolen or buried through decades.
It recounts the amazing-because-it’s-all-true story of how an African-American slave named Robert Smalls led his family and other enslaved people on a daring escape almost a year after the Civil War began, by piloting a Confederate steamer out of South Carolina and toward Union waters. In doing so, the book serves to remind us that black people were active, daring and, often, successful agents in securing their own freedom.
For the complete story, visit USAToday.com/Life/Books.
