Pheby Delores Brown was born on the Bell Plantation in Charles City, Virginia. The daughter of the estate’s medicine woman, and cherished by the Master’s sister, her days as an enslaved girl are almost over… She has been promised freedom on her eighteenth birthday.

But when she finally turns eighteen, the life she has dreamed of is tragically torn from her. Instead of being free, she is thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous Devil’s Half-Acre, a jail where slaves are broken, tortured and sold every day.

Her life flashing before her eyes, Pheby is forced to become the mistress of the jailor, the brutal man who owns the prison. Yet even in hell, Pheby never loses sight of her freedom. But how much will she have to sacrifice? And in the face of such darkness, will she survive?

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