Dangerous Search, Book 1

"A Dangerous Search" is historic fiction based on actual events in the Revolutionary War and some of the African American men who shaped those events. Tobias Gardner, a twelve-year-old free black in Lexington, Massachusetts in 1775, steals away on a dangerous journey to find his uncle in Boston as the Revolutionary War begins. After meeting up with Minutemen on the road to Boston, Tobias befriends African American militia men Peter Salem, Lemuel Haynes, and Barzillai Lew, all real figures from history, and helps out in the Minuteman camp outside Boston while planning a way to sneak into a heavily guarded Boston. Finally making his way past British sentries on the road to Boston, Tobias searches for his uncle's workplace and there meets Prince Hall and George Middleton, two African American men who were leaders of Boston's black community at the time. From Hall and Middleton, Tobias learns of his uncle's work as a spy for the Sons of Liberty and the cause of freedom embraced by Boston's black population. After being reunited with his uncle in the Minuteman camp outside Boston, Tobias becomes a drummer in a regiment and joins other black patriots, including actual Afican American hero Salem Poor, in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Primary sources relating to and biographical information about the historical figures featured in the book are included at the end of the book. For grades 4-6.