The story of a mixed-race family, Michael Healy, a white Irish immigrant planter in Georgia; his African American slave and wife Eliza, and their nine children, negotiating the terrain of race and ethnicity in 19th century America. Legally slaves these brothers and sisters were smuggled north prior to the Civil War to be educated. Working at the intersection of church history and racial and ethnic, James O'Toole demonstrates that racial categories have been more fluid than law and custom admit. The Healys found freedom and extraordinary achievement by embracing their Irish heritage and the Catholic faith, while distancing themselves from their African roots and slave status.