Common Threads

It is the early 1850s when thirteen-year-old Ashani tribe member Berko Yaba is snatched from his home in Ghana, West Africa, and placed on a slave ship bound for Jamaica. A short time later, Berko takes a new name, Jed, and reluctantly begins a new, imprisoned life with his shrewd owner. Meanwhile, in Cupar, Scotland, Johnny McDonald is like most teenage boys in his farming community, focused on raising healthy crops and animals. But when Johnny marries Diana and begins farming his own land, things begin to go wrong. Halfway across the world from each other, Jed and John endure very different challenges. As Jed battles the torture of slavery and falls in love with Mary, another slave, John fights the daily obstacles that accompany a life of farming. But when John encounters a disaster that ruins his crops and Jed discovers the Underground Railroad, fate eventually leads both men and their families to journey to a small community in southern Ontario, where common threads tie them together as they become owners of one of the largest potato farms in Canada. In this historical tale, the years pass and the families grow to include multi-racial twins, as events eventually lead a new generation to Mississippi, where everyone must face the sorrows of prejudice.