About this book:

The extraordinary story of one couple's determination to free themselves and their children from slavery and make a new life in Canada.

Prior to abolition in 1865, as many as 40,000 men, women, and children made the perilous trip north from enslavement in the United States to freedom in Canada. Many were aided by networks that came to be known as the Underground Railroad. And the stories that emerge from the past about these journeys are truly remarkable.

In A Shadow on the Household, Bryan Prince, a descendant of slaves, brings to life the heart-wrenching story of the Weems family and their struggle to liberate themselves from slavery. John Weems, a man who purchased his own freedom, paid the owner of his enslaved wife and eight children an annual fee to keep them together at one plantation. But when that owner died, the Weemses were cruelly separated and scattered throughout the South. Heartbroken and desperate, John resolved to raise the money to buy his family's freedom and reunite them. Mining newspapers, private letters, diaries, estate records, marriage registries, and abolitionist papers for details of a story cloaked in secrecy, Bryan Prince has rescued the Weems family and their plight from historical oblivion.

An unforgettable story of love and persistence, played out in four countries (the United States, Canada, Jamaica, and the United Kingdom) against the backdrop of the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a growing abolitionist movement, and the heroic efforts of the Underground Railroad, the Weems family saga must be read to be believed.

Review Quotes:

A Shadow on the Household is named to Globe and Mail's top 100 "best and most influential books" for 2009.

"A Shadow on the Household is the true story of one family's gripping experience on the Underground Railroad and how an absolutely riveting tale that had reverberations not only in the United States, but also Great Britain, the Caribbean and Canada.

Bryan Prince, a farmer and descendant of slaves, is from North Buxton, Ontario, one of the best-known termini of the Underground Railroad in Canada. He has produced a masterpiece of historical scholarship. The amount of detail that Prince has unearthed in combing through the myriad government documents and archival records, memoirs, letters, old newspapers and so forth, is staggering. However, while the research is impeccable, what is most impressive is Prince's incredible storytelling capability. He reveals that he is a master storyteller, whose true-to-life historical account bears all the hallmarks of a best-selling novel. It is beautifully written and will appeal to a broad cross-section of readers." - Ontario History (March 22, 2010)

"This epic story by Prince reads like a tightly written novel. Its sympathetic characters are deeply affecting as they race against time to ensure the freedom of loved ones before they are relocated to the Deep South and an inescapable, cruel fate. Important Canadian aspects of the story are given due emphasis, such as the workings of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves flee to Canada.." - Fast Forward Weekly (FFWD, Calgary, Alberta)

"A work with the breadth and depth of a historical epic. . . . At times, it's easy to forget that A Shadow on the Household is a work of history, and not fiction. Often, the text has the heightened drama of a detective narrative, with villains and heroes, and people working against the clock, against unimaginable odds. . . . a gripping and comprehensive historical investigation that will draw you in and make you think." - Montreal Gazette

"Prince's concrete details of a desperate time and place bring the family fiercely to life. It is a superb piece of scholarship." - Globe and Mail

"[A] compelling work of popular history . . . Extensive details and background make for chilling and gut-rending reading. . . . Accounts such as this people's history remind us of our inhumanity, but also of the good that devotion and commitment can achieve." - Winnipeg Free Press

"Prince, a Buxton-area farmer and a descendant of slaves, clearly possesses a remarkable understanding of the history of the subject he has written about. A Shadow on the Household is an unrelenting triumph; a glowing, exhaustively researched and utterly sincere work that demonstrates how tight family ties can be. Outstanding." - SCENE magazine

"The book is subtitled One Enslaved Family's Incredible Struggle For Freedom and it is certainly all that and more. So fantastic are some of the events that transpire in this account that one can be sometimes excused for forgetting that it's a true story, and imagine that it is a fictional, somewhat over exaggerated tale. However nothing could be further from the truth - Bryan did painstaking research in various parts of Canada and the United States in search of minute details, historical records and factual accounts in order to flesh out his well-told and captivating story. .. Bryan Prince tells a great story and his research skills are second to none. Reading "A Shadow on the Household" is not unlike a conversation with Bryan himself. It's always interesting, insightful, and full of warmth and passion." - Chatham Daily News, Jim and Lisa Gilbert

"An amazing true story of a family fiercely resisting the cruelties thrust upon it." - Midwest Book Review

"Buy it." - National Post

"Congratulations, it is a wonderful work of history, well researched, and brilliantly written. … I will treasure this important publication."- Lonnie G. Bunch, Director, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture

"What a fascinating story! With prodigious research, a fine eye for detail, and a deep respect for a family who endured the most painful trauma under the slave system that governed their lives, Bryan Prince brings the dramatic tale of Arabella and John Weems and their nine children to life. Prince is an accomplished storyteller." - Karolyn Smardz Frost, Governor General's Award-winning author of I've Got a Home in Glory Land

"The powerful drama of the Weems family's pursuit of freedom is beautifully and hauntingly retold here through Bryan Prince's remarkable storytelling skill. A Shadow on the Household is an extraordinary tale of the powerful bonds of family that even slavery and forced separation could not destroy. . . . A Shadow on the Household is a story of heroes and villains, of joy and pain, and ultimately a salute to real freedom fighters. A must read." - Kate Clifford Larson, Ph.D., author of Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero

"A Shadow on the Household contrasts slavery's insidious and cruel assault on the black family with the Weems family's unflagging, courageous, heartbreaking and exhilarating struggle to free each and every member of the family. A Shadow on the Household is a must read for the steadily growing number of people who know history is far more exciting and complex than the watered-down version we've long been offered." - Mary Kay Ricks, author of Escape on the Pearl: the Heroic Bid for Freedom on the Underground Railroad

Top of page

*Bryan would like to acknowledge the assistance given him by Washington, D.C. historian extraordinaire, Charles Brewer, in researching this book.