Ruby

Ruby is a story of creative nonfiction about slaves who were freed in 1854 before the Civil War and who started an encampment at Indian Run, a very small village in far Western Pennsylvania. Ruby is a composite character because nothing is known of individual slaves, but historically the story is correct. The encampment and all its hardships, the doctor who freed his slaves in Virginia and the abolitionist in Pennsylvania who helped them find a place to live were very real. Like many Pennsylvania freed slaves, Ruby had a romance with an American Indian man. When the camp broke up after the Civil War, her best friend taught her to read and write. Life’s trials and basic survival drove her to become a businesswoman designing hats (becoming one of few women entrepreneurs of her era).